- EV Tech Insider
- Posts
- Hitachi Construction completes electric dump truck initial tests, shipping to mining site for next round of validation
Hitachi Construction completes electric dump truck initial tests, shipping to mining site for next round of validation
Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd has completed the test version of an engine-free, full battery rigid frame dump truck.
The basic operations were tested at Hitachinaka-Rinko Works by gradually combining the battery charging and discharging system, pantograph, and other power supply systems with the drive system that controls the travel of the dump truck. It will be shipped from Japan to the Kansanshi copper and gold mine in Zambia on January 20, 2024.
The technological feasibility trials, set to begin in mid-2024, aim to verify the basic performance of operations required of a dump truck, such as traveling, turning, and stopping under actual operating loads, as well as the battery charging and discharging cycles.
Hitachi Construction Machinery began collaborating with ABB Ltd. in June 2021 to develop the full-battery dump truck. On March 1, 2023, Hitachi Construction Machinery signed a letter of intent with First Quantum to establish a zero-emission partnership. The companies plan to conduct technological feasibility trials using the full battery dump truck test machine at First Quantum’s Kansanshi copper and gold mine.
First Quantum, which currently operates 41 Hitachi Construction Machinery (diesel) trolley trucks at the Kansanshi copper and gold mine, already has much of the infrastructure required for full battery dump trucks in place.
Note: The machines are not equipped with batteries, and instead use a system that draws electric power from the trolley power supply to drive the AC motor when traveling uphill. In areas with no trolley power line or on downhill slopes, charging is not performed and the machines run on electric power supplied from the generator driven by the diesel engine.
Source – Hitachi