News

Volvo EC55 Electric begins customer trial in China

Aluminium company Xinyuan has taken delivery of a pilot EC55 Electric excavator, designed by Volvo Construction Equipment specifically for the needs of the Chinese market, for the customer trial phase of its development. Following the unveiling of the Volvo EC55 Electric excavator in China at the China International Import Expo 2020, the first customer pilot machine has now been delivered to aluminium company Xinyuan for customer testing.

Xinyuan is using the 5.5-ton electric excavator from Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) for ground grading and earthwork loading at its new plant in Liaocheng, Shandong Province. The customer trial will last 500 hours and focus mainly on testing noise and emissions. The project team will work closely with the customer to ensure improvements based on feedback received.

“China is the perfect place to test our new machines and gain valuable customer feedback. That is why it’s exciting for us to see this machine already operating at Xinyuan’s site, and how it makes their employees’ daily work easier and more comfortable,” said Mats Sköldberg, Head of Technology at Volvo CE China.

The Volvo EC55 Electric customer pilot excavator offers quiet and emission-free operation, supporting China’s pursuit of green energy and green vehicles. It is based on its diesel-powered counterpart, the EC55D, and has been designed to deliver even better performance and controllability with the added benefits of quiet operation and zero emissions. Since the energy running costs are 50% lower and the maintenance requirements simpler, the EC55 Electric should also achieve higher uptime and a lower total cost of ownership.

This excavator is not commercially available yet but during this research phase Volvo CE aims to mature it quickly so that it can be commercialised as soon as possible.

Got a news story? Email news@earthmoversmagazine.co.uk.