Announced in September, 2017, revamped versions of this Komatsu dumper truck will be the largest electric vehicle in the world, with a whopping 45 ton empty weight and a battery pack with 700 kWh capacity.
Toiling in a Swiss cement quarry, the truck will transport material down from a mountain ridge into a valley. Every day, twenty times a day, the vehicle will charge its batteries downhill with the benefit of the extra weight of the quarried material, and then return up the hill empty under stored electric power. The designers expect the overall cycle to be energy positive.
This is an enormous improvement over the current practice of riding the brakes on the way down and using diesel power to return up the hill. Not only can the brakes be expected to last far longer, but fuel costs will be nil. How’s that for Principle 22 – Blessing in Disguise in action?
