Volvo Construction Equipment has delivered its first electric compact excavator to a customer for testing, four months after the model was unveiled at Bauma in April.
The ECR25 Electric compact excavator will be tested by French contractor Spac, part of the Colas Group, who will use the 2.5t machine to dig trenches at the Saint-Nom-la Bretèche golf course, just outside of Paris.
According to a statement from Volvo, with zero exhaust emissions and almost silent operation, the ECR25 Electric is perfect for such environments.
Elodie Guyot, electric compact excavator project manager for Volvo CE, said: “It’s exciting for us to see this machine at a client’s construction site. It’s in a very quiet and peaceful area where residents want that quietness and peacefulness to be respected so it’s crucial to have a machine that meets this need.”
Volvo also quoted Benjamin Silvent, site manager for Spac, as saying: “For residents and cities in general, it makes our worksites more acceptable because it limits carbon emissions and noise disturbance.”
Alexandre Birot, machine operator for Spac, added: “When we talk to the guy in the trench we don’t have to yell, we talk normally and he can hear everything. With a traditional excavator we first have to turn the engine off for him to be able to hear. What’s more, when we spend the whole day in the trench, usually he would inhale a lot of fumes but now there’s no exhaust gas for him to inhale. If there were only electric machines in the company that would be amazing.”
Volvo said the ECR25 Electric replaces a combustion engine with 48-volt lithium-ion batteries and an electric motor that powers the hydraulics to move the machine and attachments. The batteries store enough energy to power the machine for eight hours in typical applications, such as utility work. An onboard charger enables overnight charging via a regular household plug socket. A fast charging option, requiring more powerful grid access, will also be available.
The statement added that the ECR25 Electric will be available for purchase in selected markets from mid-2020.