Caterpillar Inc Heavy Equipment CSR by GineersNow Engineering GineersNow Engineering Magazine November 2016 | Page 28

Photo by komatsu
$30 BILLION MARKET FOR
CONSTRUCTION ELECTRIC
VEHICLES
Electric
vehicles
for
construction, agriculture and
mining will be a $30 billion
market in 2025. Komatsu, John
Deere, Caterpillar, and others
manufacture the big vehicles
- mainly hybrid - while other
manufacturers offer smaller,
pure-electric versions.
Pure electric is a legal requirement
indoors. Outdoors, fuel saving
and better performance attracts.
Cranes and man lifters have
many
applications.
Their
production volumes are larger
28
NOVEMBER 2016
Mining Engineering and Its Importance
than most people realise. So it is
with the electric versions set for
253,000 to be sold in 2025.
This is an industry about to
change radically. For example, in
mining, over 90% of the world's
mines are open cast. They are
often in remote places up to 4000
meters above sea level, where
shipping diesel can cost more
than buying it. Consequently,
there is now a move to have 350
kW giant haul trucks working
the floor and separately the top of
the mine with electric rail-veyors
lifting the ore from bottom to
top. In an all-electric solution
new pollution laws can be met,
image improved and money
saved, the electricity coming
from the mine's own wind
turbines and photovoltaics.
Battery swapping and fast
charging of those batteries
means 350 kWh batteries
suffice - big but no larger than
those in other EV sectors.