How would you like to save $10,000 in fuel a year on a 22-ton excavator?
That’s the claim being made by Doosan Infracore with its revolutionary hybrid excavator. The machine will have a diesel engine, electric swing motor, electric converter and an ultra-capacitor that will store excess energy during turning and light-duty operations. The stored electricity will assist the engine during heavy loading. That keeps the rpms low for fuel savings and an approximate 35 percent reduction in carbon dioxide. Doosan has moved the launch date up two years, to 2012.
Doosan is the third major OEM to come out with an earthmoving hybrid or electrical drivetrain. As Equipment World reported back in January, Caterpillar is fielding an all-electric drive D7E dozer and Volvo has a hybrid-drive wheel loader in the works.
