This heavy equipment operator put seven, 20-ton battery electric wheel loaders and dozers from Chinese equipment brand XCMG to work for combined 17,370 (!) hours last year, and realized an “astonishing” cost savings. Etrucks New Zealand owner Ross Linton is one of the more interesting voices in the electric commercial vehicle space. As his country’s primary distributor of Chinese-made medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks, chargers, and industrial equipment, he has direct access and real-world insights into a lot of machinery we simply don’t (yet) have access to in North America. In a recent LinkedIn post, Linton shared performance data from a fleet of seven 20-ton XCMG machines in his company’s rental fleet, and the numbers are eye-opening. “These seven 20-ton class XCMG Group BEV loaders have run a combined 17,370 hours using a total of 412,000 kWh in New Zealand,” he writes. “That’s 23.7 kWh/h at, say, 30c/kWh, or $7.11 per hour. That is an astonishing energy cost saving over any diesel loader.” Advertisement - scroll for more content Astonishing is just the beginning That number, $7.11/hr NZ works out to about $4.13/hr US, might still seem high to Americans thinking in terms of electric cars driving at 60 or 70 mph on a highway, but that’s not the world these machines live in. For context, a direct competitor to XCMG’s 20-ton loaders, the Caterpillar 966, for example, can burn between 4 and 10 gallons of diesel fuel per hour (depending on who you believe and what kind of work you’re doing). With the price of of red dye diesel averaging $5.60/gal as I type this, that puts fuel costs on the CAT somewhere between $20 and 50/hr, or 5-10x the cost of running on your machines on diesel. It doesn’t stop there. With overnight and off-peak charging, US equipment fleets can cut that $4.13/hr in half. Remember that when the oil money tries to reinstate the draft. SOURCE | IMAGES: Etrucks New Zealand, via Ross Linton. If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them. Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here. Stay up to date with the latest content by subscribing to Electrek on Google News. You’re reading Electrek— experts who break news about Tesla, electric vehicles, and green energy, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow Electrek on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our YouTube channel for the latest reviews.
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