French contractor Spac, part of the Colas Group, has taken delivery of the first electric Volvo compact excavator, the ECR25 Electric, in the customer trial phase.
Following the unveiling of the first electric Volvo compact excavator, the ECR25 Electric, at Bauma 2019, the machine has now been delivered to Spac for customer testing.
Spac, part of the Colas Group, is using the 2.5-tonne excavator to dig trenches at the Saint-Nom-la Bretèche golf course, just outside of Paris, France.
With zero exhaust emissions and almost silent operation, the Volvo ECR25 Electric is perfect for such environments.
“It’s exciting for us to see this machine at a client’s construction site,” says Elodie Guyot, electric compact excavator project manager for Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE). “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.”
Benjamin Silvent, site manager for Spac says: “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 adds: “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.”
The Volvo 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 8 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 Volvo ECR25 Electric will be available in selected markets from mid-2020.
