An “e-dumper” project is seeing a huge 110-tonne Komatsu HD 605-7 dump truck being converted to an electric vehicle by a consortium of Swiss companies, which should be ready soon.
And it is intended to produce a surplus of electricity rather than draw massive amounts in charging from the grid.
The project will capitalise on one of the strengths of EVs, generating electricity through braking.
The Swiss e-dumper will generate up to 200kWh surplus daily, an estimated 10% surplus on each trip.
When complete, the e-dumper should carry a 65-tonne payload using its 700kWh chassis-mounted battery pack storage capacity, which comprises about 1,440 nickel manganese cobalt battery cells weighing 4.5 tonnes.
In a few months, the e-dumper is likely to resume its daily 20 trips hauling material from a quarry on a mountain down to a conveyor system. Braking the entire way down is expected to generate a surplus which can be fed into the power network.
The e-dumper project is being funded by Swiss construction materials company Ciments Vigier SA and involves a team from Lithium Storage GmbH and the Kuhn Group.
Ciments Vigier SA could put eight of the e-dumpers to work if the project proves successful.
