Some time in the next few months, the Komatsu HD 605-7 will start carting materials down from a Swiss mountain powered only by a mammoth 4.5-ton battery pack, said to make it the largest electric vehicle in the world.

The vehicle in question is a used truck built by multinational machinery maker Komatsu. Now a team of researchers in Switzerland has gotten its hands on the heavy duty diesel dumper, and set about repurposing it as a prototype for an all-electric mining vehicle that can carry heavy loads in a more environmentally friendly way.

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This involved disassembling and reconstructing the truck, removing the diesel engine and making space around the chassis for the huge battery packs, which will consist of 1,440 nickel manganese cobalt cells and boast 700 kWh of storage capacity.

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When finished, the prototype will be put to the test using its 65-ton loading capacity to haul materials down from a cement works quarry on Switzerland's Chasseral mountain 20 times a day. During each of those trips, regenerative braking will charge up the battery pack by 40 kWh, which the team says will provide more than enough energy to make it back up the hill with electricity leftover to feed back into the grid.

Because this project represents new territory for electric vehicles, the team will be watching closely to see how the truck performs and keeping an eye out for any malfunctions. This will mean running overcharging tests and purposely mistreating some of the nickel manganese cobalt cells with a steel nail to see how the batteries respond.

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A Swiss consortium of companies is constructing the largest electric vehicle in the world – in record time. The prototype is not intended as a dainty little exhibition piece for trade fairs, but rather for hard labor in the quarry. Experts from Empa are in charge of its operational safety.

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This seemingly barmy idea is costing Ciments Vigier SA a seven-digit sum (in Swiss francs). A team comprising two companies is to get the vehicle rolling: Lithium Storage GmbH from Illnau, which brings experience of electric trucks to the table, and the Kuhn Group, which sells Komatsu dumper trucks all over Europe. The Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) is supporting the project. Empa is also in on the action: battery expert Marcel Held is in charge of safety assessments. He is evaluating the battery pack produced by Chinese manufacturer Shenzen Westart and checking its giant construction and the programming of the battery management system, which stems from Swiss manufacturer Esoro.

The cornerstones of the battery pack have already been fixed: the battery pack for the e-dumper will weigh 4.5 tons and consist of 1,440 nickel manganese cobalt cells.

Never before has a land vehicle been fitted with such a vast battery pack.

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Never before has a vehicle of this performance class 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.

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jb1234 said:

That's a badass beast. Nothing worse than diesel exhaust so glad they're going in this direction.

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Yaboosh said:

What's that thing on the front that looks like a big exhaust pipe?

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Yaboosh said:

What's that thing on the front that looks like a big exhaust pipe?

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Escape Goat said:

got E dumps like a truck.

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Now a team of researchers in Switzerland has gotten its hands on the heavy duty diesel dumper, and set about repurposing it as a prototype for an all-electric mining vehicle that can carry heavy loads in a more environmentally friendly way.

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refreshZ said:

Does
Not
Compute

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Stinkles said:

All fun and games till you walk in front of it at the crosswalk because you didn't hear it.

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refreshZ said:

Yeah I know, was just pointing out the relative futility given mining is one of the most environmentally destructive things humanity does.

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Tagyhag said:

Wow I never thought of that. Imagine an almost quiet 18-wheeler.

Would be such a weird sight.

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CosmicGroinPull said:

Awesome.

Also because you could get flattened by it and never hear it coming.

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Hesemonni said:

Believe me you'd hear the tires on these.

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Yaboosh said:

What's that thing on the front that looks like a big exhaust pipe?

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andythinkpad said:

That 4.5 ton battery is probably million of 18650 batteries wired together.

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