The World’s Largest EV is a Self-Powering eDump Truck
Dump Trucks, especially those used in the mining industry are not known to be clean. They drive around in quarries raising a huge amount of dust wherever they go. Now, these huge mean machines are going to get cleaner, much cleaner. That’s because they are going green.
The Swiss are greening up their act with a 45-ton eco-friendly dump truck called the Elektr Dumper or eDumper. It’s an electrified dumper mining truck from the Swiss division of Kuhn Schweitz AG. And no surprise here, the eDumper is the largest EV vehicle in the world.
The trucks are so huge that their wheels are over 1.8 meters tall and there are nine steps leading up to the cockpit. They weigh an astounding 110 tons when fully loaded and is powered by a 4.5-ton electric battery.
The eDumper trucks generate all their own electricity, according to the company, so they never need to be plugged in. That’s really good because the trucks are used to transport rocks and limestone on Swiss mountain in Biel, far away from any electrical power source.
The trucks make an average of 20 trips up and own the mountain every day and generate more than 200 kw hours of surplus energy daily. The electricity is generated by a special regenerating braking system that captures the energy generated when the fully loaded truck goes downhill. This more than powers its uphill climbs.
According to CNN, collectively the truck saved over 76,000 liters of diesel fuel since they started operating in April 2019 and eliminated 200 tons of CO2 from being released.
“This is pure magic,” Formula E driver Lucas di Grassi told CNN when he was shown the monster trucks. “That’s the real-world application of EV. Making it cheaper, more efficient and greener. So, you’re saving 50,000 tons of fuel per machine per year.”
This is just one jumbo sized step in the race to an all-electric vehicle future. There are electric trains, electric ferries, electric long haul trucks, electric planes, and now electric dump trucks. If all large vehicles convert to electric engines, just think of how much smaller their carbon footprints will be.
