This dump truck is the largest electric vehicle in the world—and since it generates all the electricity that it needs for transportation, it does not even need to be manually recharged.
The Elekto Dumper—also known as the eDumper—is a 45-ton construction vehicle which is used to transport limestone and rock from Swiss mountaintops.
The vehicle works by ascending steep inclines with an empty cargo. Once it is loaded with up to 65 tons of ore, it uses a “regenerative braking system” to capture all of the energy that is created by traveling downhill so that it can completely power itself for its next uphill journey.
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Kuhn Schweitz, the German manufacturing company responsible for creating the eDumper, says that by making an average of 20 trips up and down a mountain every day, the trucks are able to generate more than 200 kilowatt hours of surplus energy daily, or 77 megawatt-hours per year.
Collectively, the trucks have already saved an estimated 76,000 liters of diesel fuel and 200 tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere since it was unveiled in April. Researchers estimate that the vehicles will continue to save up to 1,300 tons of CO2 and 500,000 liters of diesel over the course of the next ten years.
“This is pure magic,” Formula E driver Lucas di Grassi told CNN after being introduced to the trucks. “That’s the real-world application of EV. Making it cheaper, more efficient and greener.”
(WATCH di Grassi talk about the groundbreaking truck in the video below)
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This is no-where near the largest EV in the world. That is probably the Danish ferry ‘Ellen’ at 60m long x 13 wide and 650T (empty).
http://e-ferryproject.eu
Without meaning to sound negative, this EV dump truck can only give these results in a handful of mines throughout the world – those that are situated in extremely high mountains. Most mines are below natural ground level. Most dump trucks go downhill empty and comes up laden. In this scenario the regenerative braking going down into the mine wouldn’t generate enough stored electricity to be of much benefit. The machines would need to be recharged regularly and for lengthy periods. Downtime is extremely expensive for any mine – using them in open cut mines isn’t feasible. You would still have to burn a fuel to generate electricity to recharge them, with all the associated electrical and mechanical losses it’s more cost effective and green just to run diesel electric, because storing electricity in batteries has its own associated losses.
Other points:
As the mine is mined, the mountain will become lower and lower, so the amount of regenerative energy made will be less and less as mining goes on.
They mention in the video that this truck can carry 50 tonnes more than the regular dump truck in the background. It has been designed to carry an extra 50 tonnes out of necessity – probably to future proof it – as the mine becomes lower and lower and offers less potential energy for charging.
Technology has still not found a way to make a battery that can store equivalent energy of a given volume and weight of diesel fuel.