Volvo Construction Equipment unveils its first electric excavator in India

Bengaluru, Feb 1

Volvo Construction Equipment unveiled its first electric equipment—an EC55 electric compact excavator—in the country during the bauma CONEXPO. Dimitrov Krishnan, Managing Director, Volvo CE India, told businessline that pre-booking for the product will start in the second quarter of CY2024 and that the company plans to offer the equipment as a service to increase market acceptance.

“The electric excavator can run on a single charge for a full shift of six to eight hours. In the case of charging it, there are both AC and DC options available. With DC fast charging, the machine can be fully charged in one to two hours, while with AC charging, it will be charged overnight,” explained Krishnan. The equipment will be imported from China.

To make its latest product more acceptable in the Indian market, the company plans to approach those clients who have raised inquiries, as they would be the early adopters. Second, the Managing Director said that the equipment would be offered as a service. “The customer organization’s knowledge of how to use the product and keep it running is low, so offering it as a service will facilitate market adoption of this technology. Equipment as a service was already launched last year for conventional products, and we intend to use it as a vehicle for these products as well,” explained the MD.

Globally, in 2019, Volvo Construction launched its first electric product in Munich, and the products have been on sale since 2020.

The company has set itself the objective of having 35 per cent of its machines be electric by 2030 globally. “So we are starting the journey in India with this product. We are also engineering electric products in the country, and we will bring them to market as and when we are ready,” said Krishnan.

Business in India

Volvo Construction Equipment plans to grow in the country by building products specifically designed for India.

“We are working on several products that are more in this direction, and we assure that our ambition level in the country will be to grow them multiple times,” he noted.

Moreover, “we also see India as a possibility to export to markets such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, where we export our compactors and pavers from India. To increase our export activity from the country, we will be exploring markets for excavators,” he added.

According to the MD, their primary investment right now is in R&D. “We are moving more R&D to India, and also R&D for the world from India. We are doing a lot of high-tech activity in the areas of embedded electronic systems, product development, hardcore product development like pavers, and also the electrification journey,” he added.

During the expo, the company also showcased the Volvo P7320 Track Paver, which is the most recent paver range to be manufactured and launched in the country.

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