Product Introduction
The heavy-duty equipment market is steadily trending toward a future of electric-powered systems working alongside traditional fuel-powered systems. With the goal of giving our customers a concrete analysis of this trend, we partnered with OEM Off-Highway to conduct a first-hand survey and gauge sentiment around electrification.
Our survey asked respondents to rank the benefits of electric-powered systems in order of most important to least important. While it’s clear why some benefits such as cost savings earn top place, benefits such as quieter operating noise or vehicle data acquisition require some explanation.
Let’s take a closer look at the top five benefits of moving toward electric systems.
Long-Term Cost Savings for Equipment Owners
Electric equipment has the potential to save owners a substantial amount over the long term.
While it’s true that the initial cost of electric systems is typically higher than fuel systems given the intricacy of designs, electric equipment has distinct factors that help companies recoup the loss from purchases in the long-term.
Saving money on fuel is one of the most obvious cost savings when switching from diesel or gas systems to electric or hybrid. Hybrid systems can drive a 50 percent increase in fuel efficiency as seen by Volvo’s prototype of an electric hybrid wheel loader.
In addition, electric systems typically require less maintenance, saving owners the cost of routine trips to service providers.
Reduction in Greenhouse Gas
Largely a driver of consumers’ desire to switch to electric vehicles, environmental advantages of hybrid systems hold the second most beneficial factor in pursuing electric vehicles according to our survey.
Given that government entities such as the US Environmental Protection Agency continue to set increasingly strict regulations on acceptable emission standards from heavy-duty equipment, reducing greenhouse gasses will remain top-of-mind for equipment owners and engineers as a benefit of electrification for years to come.
Reduction in Routine Maintenance
The mechanics of electric-powered equipment are more reliable since they have fewer moving components than their combustion-engine counterparts. Because of this, electric systems require less routine maintenance since upkeep such as changing the oil becomes obsolete.
Less time in the service shop means equipment owners save on maintenance cost, fleet downtime and peace of mind.
Quieter Operating Noise
Primarily a benefit in metropolitan areas, quieter operating noise is a subtle advantage of electric equipment. Cities often set ordinances for permitted construction times and decibel levels, so in theory, electric equipment has the potential to extend a construction site’s working hours beyond typical limits since the machines meet decibel levels.
Vehicle Data Acquisition
Vehicle data acquisition is a benefit of fully electric and hybrid systems.
When owners monitor data points from their fleet, they are poised to optimize fleet performance by detecting trends within data. Key performance indicators such as battery health, emission volume and even the overall efficiency of a fleet help owners monitor their fleet like never before. Over time, this aggregate data gives owners concrete evidence needed to pursue predictive maintenance and prevent bigger issues before they happen.
As electrification progresses throughout the off-highway industry, it will be interesting to see whether these benefits change in ranking - or change altogether.
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