Caterpillar brings electric equipment ecosystem to CES2024
Caterpillar turned the heads of CES attendees with a monstrous, all-electric underground mining loader – but the real game-changer wasn’t the big mining rig, or even the electric excavator. Instead, it was Cat’s cutting-edge energy management systems to keep electric equipment charged up and ready to work.
“We are thrilled to return to CES to showcase our advancements in energy solutions. This event is renowned as the proving ground for breakthrough technologies and global innovators, making it the ideal place for us to demonstrate our leadership in power systems and integrated service solutions, which help our customers in the energy transition,” said Rod Shurman, senior vice president of Caterpillar’s Electrification + Energy Solutions Division.
To that end, Caterpillar showcased a number of on-site generators capable of generating electric power to store in its battery energy storage system (BESS). Caterpillar says its BESS is designed for rapid plug-and-play installation and integration, compatible with any combination of diesel, natural gas, or renewable energy sources.
Granted, fuel-agnostic energy storage is something most BESS products are capable of – but the concept of using on-site batteries for EV charging is still new enough that it might still be news to Cat’s customers. In fairness, Cat’s big BESS offers a comprehensive array of charging ports, making it compatible with almost any EV, charging it in about 20-40 minutes.
Caterpillar also showcased several smaller DC chargers designed to be compact enough for a single worker to wheel up to a piece of electric equipment and charge it with electrons in about three hours.
Speaking of electric equipment, Caterpillar also brought out an electric drive mini excavator fitted with a jackhammer implement meant to show fleet buyers that their legacy Cat accessories would still work once they made the transition to electric – but note: Cat’s excavator isn’t fully electric.
Cat 301.9 electric mini excavator
Unlike the fully-electric equipment concepts shown by Doosan Bobcat and HD Hyundai, which use electric actuators and gears to move their boom arms, the Cat 301.9 uses an electric motor to power its wheels and accessories, but still relies on conventional hydraulic oils to manipulate its arm – and that can be a problem in cold climates.
“The electric motors don’t make as much heat as the diesels,” explained “Greg,” one the Caterpillar SMEs on the ground at CES2024. “So it can take a long time to warm up the hydraulics.”
This might seem like a rookie mistake, but Greg clarified, “These are still really new. The first two or three I drove were converted diesel units. This is one of the first ones that was built electric from the start.”
To Caterpillar’s credit, sticking to hydraulic operation will make it easier for operators familiar with Cats to switch to electric. The fact that the hydraulic accessories fleet operators already own will work with the new electric 301.9 also helps lower the EV’s barrier to entry.
The 301.9 mini excavator was displayed alongside its 48 volt on-board battery pack, which offers a total capacity of 32 kWh and delivers 3 hours’ of continuous runtime – which is just enough to handle a full working shift above ground.
Below ground, you’ll want something a little bigger.
Cat R1700 XE LHD underground loader
The crown jewel of Caterpillar’s CES exhibit this year was the massive Cat R1700 XE LHD underground loader. The R1700 XE LHD offers a whopping 16.5-ton payload and a top speed just over 11 mph – a nightmare-fast speed in the tight confines of a dark underground mine, the loader’s natural habitat.
The good news is that you won’t have your lungs getting choked out by diesel fumes while you try to escape from the big Cat, because this is the only underground loader in the industry powered by onboard battery that can charge in less than 20 minutes when it’s hooked up to two of the big Cat MEC500 chargers we talked about at the beginning of this article.
This is the first of this type of Cat battery packs, which the company claims are a modular design that will power future electric equipment models, as well as with factory integrated telematics and a structure durable to endure the challenges of the job site.
Electrek’s Take
Caterpillar isn’t the only heavy equipment OEM hard at work developing a total job site solution to keep its new EVs charged up – but it did a fantastic job convincing people at CES that they were, and I wanted one of the bright blue CAT trucker caps badly enough not to say anything about it to their face.
That said, I got the chance to have Volvo Penta’s Darren Tasker as a guest on The Heavy Equipment Podcast to talk about Volvo Penta’s efforts to bring more sustainable, lower emission energy to remote job sites. Trust that other companies in the space, surely, are doing the same.
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With the launch of the first-ever Class 8 vocational EV in the North American market, PACCAR Kenworth is raising the battery-electric bar and underscoring just how far the market has come since the Tesla Semi made its debut nearly a decade ago.
When Tesla pulled the wraps off its all electric Semi truck all the way back in November of 2017, the rest of the industry was hardly thinking about BEVs. Nearly a decade later, the world is still waiting for the Semi to begin regular production, and PACCAR is launching its second generation of HDEVs with the debut of this, the all-new Kenworth T880E vocational truck.
“The Kenworth T880E marks a groundbreaking milestone in Kenworth’s history as we bring to market the first Class 8 battery-electric solution built for vocational applications,” explains Kevin Haygood, Kenworth assistant general manager for sales and marketing. “The T880E is engineered to meet the evolving needs of operators and vocational fleets while still providing the durability, reliability and customization our customers expect.”
The new electric K-whopper is motivated by PACCAR’s in-house ePowertrain platform, capable of putting up to 605 hp and 1,850 lb-ft of peak torque to work, while delivering the same levels of drivability and dependability fleets expect from a Kenworth – but power and torque are only part of the T880E’s work-ready résumé.
Open to work
In addition to a stout, Class 8 electric chassis fitted with heavy-duty Kenworth brakes and axles, the T880E’s central drive eMotor allows for significant wheelbase flexibility so fleet buyers can spec out exactly the machine they need to get the job done. The T880E was also designed to enable lift axle installations from trusted Kenworth upfitters for a vocational-friendly BEV integration.
Additionally, the T880E features a wide selection of factory-installed options that include both high- and low-voltage ePTO (electric Power Take Off) ports, mechanical ePTOs, and the same wide array of body configurations as the ICE version.
Speaking of the ICE version, the electric T880E also can also be had in the same set-back front axle and set-forward front axle configurations with the same multi-piece hood construction. Inside the cab, the latest in driver-focused technology includes the Kenworth SmartWheel and a new 15″ DriverConnect digital touchscreen. Dash and vocational features like RAM Mounts and factory-installed PTO switches are available. The T880E is also offered with Kenworth ADAS packages for customers interested in DigitalVision Mirrors, Bendix Fusion, and Lane Keeping Assist.
It’s so big, you guys
The T880E was on static display at last week’s ACT Expo in Anaheim, California. Check with your local Kenworth dealer for availability.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Kenworth.
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The tire-blistering SU7 Ultra has been the Xiaomi brand’s flagship super sedan since its launch, but a controversial software setting has limited the car to “just” 900 hp in regular driving – resulting in an outcry from owners who ponied up for the big boy numbers. With its latest software update, that missing 648 hp is back on tap!
The SU7 Ultra made waves throughout the performance car world when a bright yellow striped example lined up alongside a white quarter mile king, the 1,000+ hp Tesla Model S Plaid, and promptly smoked it.
That wasn’t all. A preproduction SU7 Ultra prototype lapped the legendary Nürburgring circuit in just 6 minutes and 46.874 seconds, firmly stamping the 1,500+ hp Xiaomi’s alphanumeric into the track’s record books with a time nearly fifteen seconds quicker than a Rimac Nevera or, on the ICE front, either a Corvette ZR1, Viper ACR, or Porsche 918 (take your pick).
It’s hardly any wonder, then, that the customers who signed up – in droves, too – were disappointed to learn that the SU7 they were allowed to buy had been neutered by the safety nannies to the tune of nearly 650 hp. (!)
We’re so back
The outrage from SU7 Ultra owners was immediate. And, facing mounting pressure online and on social media, Xiaomi ultimately decided to withdraw the performance-limiting features while acknowledging the need for more transparent communication about future software updates they messed up, saying in a statement, “we appreciate the passionate feedback from our community and will ensure better transparency moving forward.”
So, rich people can rocket themselves down the road in 9 second hypercars again and all is right with the world. A happy ending – but one that sort of illuminates a fresh set challenges for automakers peddling “software-defined vehicles” to a market that still thinks of their cars as very much hardware defined products.
That’s evidenced by the resistance to pay for features by subscription and complaints by more informed customers that “software locked” range and convenience features just subsidize the cost of more expensive trim levels and pad profits for manufacturers and suppliers.
The new reality is playing out in real time now, and the Jeff Bezos-backed $20,000 electric compact pickup from Slate Auto is going the other way entirely – time will tell whether more, or less tech is the answer.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Xiaomi, via CarNewsChina.
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Tesla (TSLA) has started offering reduced interest rates on the new Model Y in the US — this equates to a direct discount on the brand new vehicle that was supposed to spark Tesla’s demand back.
The automaker has announced “1.99% APR or $0 Due at Signing available for well-qualified buyers” on the new Model Y in the US for the first time:
This amounts to a direct discount worth a few thousand dollars. It is the first widely available discount on the new Model Y coming just weeks after the cheaper non-Launch Edition launched in the US.
It follows a $2,000 direct discount that Tesla offered to early Model Y owners last week.
These discounts and subsidized financing point to soft demand for the updated best-selling vehicle in the US. Tesla just delivered a disastrous first quarter, which it mostly blamed on the Model Y changeover, resulting in lower inventory.
However, industry watchers, including Electrek, noted many signs that the Model Y changeover was not the only issue. Tesla added significantly to its inventory in the first quarter, and the wait times for the new Model Y were extremely short.
Now, the discount weeks after launching the new Model Y confirm the soft demand in the US.
It’s not as bad as Europe and China, where Tesla has already been offering 0% financing on the new Model Y for weeks.
Electrek’s Take
I think it’s clear by now: the new Model Y is not coming to save Tesla.
Let’s be honest: It will still be a significant vehicle program by volume. It just won’t help Tesla return to growth this year.
The RWD Model Y is still coming and has a chance to help in the US. It is already available in China, and it’s not helping Tesla much there, but that’s in a hyper-competitive market, especially at lower prices where the RWD Model Y operates.
Tesla’s performance in Q2 in China will be interesting since it is basically back to its regular lineup for the whole quarter.
The US appears to have been Tesla’s least affected market, but Q3 will be the real test with the full lineup and no backlog of demand for new Model Y.
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