The e-truck weighs around 45 tonnes when empty and has a loading capacity of 65 tonnes. The battery pack has 700 kWh of storage capacity, making it the largest EV in the world.
15 Sep 2017 | 4844 Views | By Autocar Professional Bureau
A consortium of Swiss companies is working on testing the world’s largest electric vehicle by converting a Komatsu dumper truck HD 605-7. The prototype is being developed to test heavy goods transport, with experts from Switzerland-based research institute Empa in charge of its operational safety.
Until last year, ...
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A consortium of Swiss companies is working on testing the world’s largest electric vehicle by converting a Komatsu dumper truck HD 605-7. The prototype is being developed to test heavy goods transport, with experts from Switzerland-based research institute Empa in charge of its operational safety.
Until last year, the Komatsu dumper truck chugged around the cement works quarry powered by its diesel engine. In a few months, it will be expected to do the same job running purely on electricity.
Colossus of an EV
The e-truck weighs around 45 tonnes when empty and has a loading capacity of 65 tonnes and a battery pack boasting 700 kWh of storage capacity, making it the largest electric vehicle in the world. As per the researchers it would weigh much as eight Tesla Model S vehicles.
The driver needs to climb nine stairs just to get to work and its tyres measure almost two metres in diameter. Not everything on the vehicle will be new, however: the monster EV is based on a used Komatsu dumper truck that’s being disassembled and reconstructed at Kuhn Schweiz in Lommis, Switzerland. The diesel engine has been removed and its chassis is being modified to accommodate the battery packs that will power the vehicle.
Waking the Colossus
The truck will be used extensively for 10 years and is expected to transport material down from a mountain ridge and into the valley 20 times a day. According to the consortium, the electric drive will carry a key advantage for these journeys: instead of heating up the brakes during the descent, the gigantic electric engine will act like a generator recharging the battery pack. The empty truck will then utilise the energy to travel back up the hill.
The researchers say, “If all goes as planned, the electric dumper truck will even harvest more electricity while traveling downhill than it needs for the ascent. Instead of consuming fossil fuels, it would then feed surplus electricity into the grid.”
The concept development is estimated to cost a seven-digit figure (in Swiss francs), with one team each from Lithium Storage and Kuhn Group working to make the giant roll. The Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) is supporting the project.
Along with Empa’s battery, Marcel Held will lead the charge in terms of safety assessments. He will evaluate the battery pack produced by the Chinese manufacturer Shenzen Westart and check the giant construction and the programming of the battery management system, which stems from Swiss manufacturer Esoro.
Powerhouse of a battery
The cornerstones of the battery pack have already been fixed: the battery pack for the e-dumper will weigh 4.5 tonnes and consist of 1,440 nickel manganese cobalt cells.
Never before has a land vehicle been fitted with such a vast battery pack. “Nickel manganese cobalt cells are also the choice of the German automobile industry when it comes to the next generation of electric cars,” explains Held.
He is primarily interested in how the cells respond if an accident occurs. What happens if a cell is damaged mechanically? If a switch malfunctions and the battery does not disconnect from the electricity once charged? "Some batteries start smoking, others burst into flames,” as Held is all too aware.
“The crucial thing in this instance is to make sure the neighboring cells are not damaged by the fire and heat, otherwise there is the risk of a chain reaction,” he says. Held will conduct overcharging tests at Empa’s test rig and also mistreat a few cells with a steel nail.
This unique vehicle in this performance class has been constructed to conquer slopes of up to 13 percent inclination under the harshest of environmental conditions while straining the batteries with electrical currents of up to 3,000 amperes, but also charging them by 40 kWh during a single descent and traveling as an energy plus vehicle on balance (plus 10 kWh of energy per roundtrip).
If the use of the new vehicle proves successful, Ciments Vigier SA could power up to eight vehicles purely electrically in the long run. For Kuhn Schweiz AG this opens up new fields for large-scale construction machines, such as in tunnel construction or in residential areas that are sensitive to exhaust gas and noise.