The electric vehicle market is really taking off in 2019, with every automotive company trying to make the fastest, the most reliable, and now, the biggest. However, if you’re thinking it’s some kind of SUV or pickup truck then think again. The world’s largest electric vehicle is actually a dumper truck (yeah, you read that right). Meet the eDumper…
The Kuhn eDumper
Hailing from the Swiss division of machinery manufacturers Kuhn, the eDumper is a real thing of beauty. If you like dumper trucks, that is. This electrified dumper mining truck is a converted Komatsu HD 605-7 which runs solely on electricity and there are some pretty clever tricks up its sleeve. The whopping 23.1-liter straight-six turbodiesel has been taken out and replaced with motors that take their energy from a battery pack that’s six times the capacity of a Tesla Model X.
Regenerative Braking
One of the coolest things about the eDumper is the use of its regenerative braking; something common in most electric vehicles. Using some smart physics, this EV can generate a whole load of energy whenever it rolls down a hill carrying heavy mining loads. This then powers the vehicle back up the hill – which is pretty clever if you ask us. According to Kuhn, the eDumper can actually make more energy than it needs using regenerative braking.
So, what’s the point in this beast of an electric vehicle? Well, it’s thought that just one of these vehicles can save 50,000 tonnes of diesel every year. Now imagine a whole load of eDumpers in mines across the world? This could certainly be the future for heavy machinery vehicles, but as of yet we don’t know what the development costs are compared to the fuel-guzzling version.