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The electrification of the commercial job site continues with news that the first Volvo L25 Electric wheel loader has been delivered to a customer in Australia!

The first Volvo L25 Electric wheel loader in Australia was delivered to Allworks WA Pty Ltd, and the company’s own Melker Jernberg, Head of Volvo Construction Equipment, was on-hand to deliver the the machine to Allworks, together with the brand’s dealer, CJD Equipment.

“We are proud to demonstrate that sustainable solutions are not just a promise for tomorrow, but a real innovation for today,” said Bertrand Collette, Head of Market Area Oceania at Volvo CE. “Having already proved their strength in other global regions, these reliable electric solutions are set to ensure customers in Australia can deliver on their decarbonization ambitions without any impact on productivity.”

The company took to LinkedIn to announce the news, and posted these images (below) showing the L25 meeting its new owners for the first time.

Volvo CE says its L25 Electric wheel loader “combines the proven Volvo compact wheel loader platform with battery power.” Unlike machines like the Cat 301.9 shown at CES that use an electric motor to power both its drive and conventional hydraulic oils, the Volvo L25 Electric uses two, a 29.5 hp electric drive motor and a smaller, 18.7 hp unit to push the oil. The result is more consistent, predictable performance while multitasking.

The L25 Electric also offers charging functionality beyond the scope of many equipment offerings, which “top out” at L2 charging. Volvo CE offers full CCS DCFC support, just like Volvo Cars, enabling grid-supported jobsites with appropriate infrastructure to repower during lunch breaks and between shifts and keep the dirt moving all day.

And, if you’re not on a grid-supported job site, Volvo is working on solutions for that, too, along with Rolls-Royce. You can check that out here, and explore the L25 Electric’s full specs, below.

Volvo L25 Electric wheel loader specs

Electric motor driveline (net) 29.5 hp
Electric motor working hydraulics (net) 18.77 hp
Standard bucket capacity 1.17 yd³
Kinematics with attachment bracket design Z
Tipping load (ISO/DIS 14397-1) 7,385 lbs
…at full turn 38 degree
Breakout force 12,252 lbf
Hydraulic lifting capacity, max 12,364 lbf
Fork payload 80% 4,409 lbs
Max. dump height 0″ ft in
Operating weight 10,802 – 11,618 lbs
Maximum travel speed – Standard 12 mph
Battery voltage 48 V
Battery capacity 40 kWh
On board charging time 400 VAC 16A ~6
Off board charging time 400 VAC 32A ~2
Indicative runtime (depending on application) Up to 8 hours
Via Volvo CE.

Electrek’s Take

The Volvo L25 Electric comes as standard with an on-board charger compatible with standard protocols used on wall boxes and charging stations*. It supplies a 3kW power output to the batteries, allowing the machine to charge from 0 to 100% overnight. It also comes with 3 plugs/adapters to charge from a wall socket or wallbox; via Volvo CE.

As the electric equipment market evolves, the winners will be the manufacturers who deliver one of two things: either bulletproof, seamless operation, or modular construction and easy accessibility for fast, on-the-fly repairs as needed. Moog and ZQuip are taking the modular route, while Volvo seems to be going for the seamless option, delivering vehicles that offer charging experiences familiar to anyone who’s experienced a road-going EV.

Time will tell which approach will eventually win out.

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Elon Musk Tapped to Lead New ‘DOGE’ Department—Despite the Government Already Having One for Efficiency

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Elon Musk Tapped to Lead New ‘DOGE’ Department—Despite the Government Already Having One for Efficiency

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is to officially join Trump’s administration as the co-head of the new US Department of Government Efficiency – a second federal department with the goal of making government spending more efficient.

You can’t get more ironic than that.

Throughout the elections, Musk, who is already CEO of Tesla, and SpaceX, a well as the defacto head of X, xAI, Neuralink, and the Boring Company, has been floating the idea to add to his workload by joining the Trump’s administration to lead a new department aimed at making the federal government more efficient.

He has been calling it the “Department of Government Efficiency”, which spells out ‘DOGE’, a meme that Musk appears to enjoy.

Well, now Trump appears to want to be going through with this idea.

He announced the new department and Musk as head, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, in a statement today:

I am pleased to announce that the Great Elon Musk, working in conjunction with American Patriot Vivek Ramaswamy, will lead the Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”). Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies – Essential to the “Save America” Movement. “This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!” stated Mr. Musk.

What’s most ironic is that there’s already a federal department with the goal of cutting government waste and ensuring efficiency: the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

The GAO’s main objectives are:

  • auditing agency operations to determine whether federal funds are being spent efficiently and effectively;
  • investigating allegations of illegal and improper activities;
  • reporting on how well government programs and policies are meeting their objectives;
  • performing policy analyses and outlining options for congressional consideration;
  • issuing legal decisions and opinions;
  • advising Congress and the heads of executive agencies about ways to make government more efficient and effective

It sounds similar to what Musk described when talking about his DOGE, but Trump hasn’t gone into many details other than it will “cut waste.”

He also has a confusing message as he compares the initiative, which is supposed to cut government spending, to “The Manhattan project”, a massive and expensive government project.

Trump said that DOGE will help the government “drive large scale structural reform”:

It will become, potentially, “The Manhattan Project” of our time. Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of “DOGE” for a very long time. To drive this kind of drastic change, the Department of Government Efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.

The statement also noted that DOGE will only operate until July 4, 2026.

Musk has previously claimed that he could cut at least $2 trillion dollars of the $6.5 trillion dollar US federal budget.

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Oil could plunge to $40 in 2025 if OPEC unwinds voluntary production cuts, analysts say

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Oil could plunge to  in 2025 if OPEC unwinds voluntary production cuts, analysts say

A pump jack in Midland, Texas, US, on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. 

Anthony Prieto | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Oil prices may see a drastic fall in the event that oil alliance OPEC+ unwinds its existing output cuts, said market watchers who are predicting a bearish year ahead for crude.

“There is more fear about 2025’s oil prices than there has been since years — any year I can remember, since the Arab Spring,” said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at OPIS, an oil price reporting agency.

“You could get down to $30 or $40 a barrel if OPEC unwound and didn’t have any kind of real agreement to rein in production. They’ve seen their market share really dwindle through the years,” Kloza added.

A decline to $40 a barrel would mean around a 40% erasure of current crude prices. Global benchmark Brent is currently trading at $72 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures are around $68 per barrel.

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Oil prices year-to-date

Given that oil demand growth next year probably won’t be much more than 1 million barrels a day, a full unwinding of OPEC+ supply cuts in 2025 would “undoubtedly see a very steep slide in crude prices, possibly toward $40 a barrel,” Henning Gloystein, head of energy, climate and resources at Eurasia Group, told CNBC. 

Similarly, MST Marquee’s senior energy analyst Saul Kavonic posited that should OPEC+ unwind cuts without regard to demand, it would “effectively amount to a price war over market share that could send oil to lows not seen since Covid.”

However, the alliance is more likely to opt for a gradual unwinding early next year, compared to a full scale and immediate one, the analysts said.

Should the producers group proceed with their production plan, the market surplus could nearly double.

Martoccia Francesco

Energy strategist at Citi

The oil cartel has been exercising discipline in maintaining its voluntary output cuts, to the point of extending them.

In September, OPEC+ postponed plans to begin gradually rolling back on the 2.2 million barrels per day of voluntary cuts by two months in an effort to stem the slide of oil prices. The 2.2 million bpd cut, which was implemented over the second and third quarters, had been due to expire at the end of September. 

At the start of this month, the oil cartel again decided to delay the planned oil output increase by another month to the end of December.

Oil prices have been weighed by a sluggish post-Covid recovery in demand from China, the world’s second-largest economy and leading crude oil importer. In its monthly report released Tuesday, OPEC lowered its 2025 global oil demand growth forecast from 1.6 million barrels per day to 1.5 million barrels per day.

The pressured prices were also conflagrated by a perceivably oversupplied market, especially as key oil producers outside the OPEC alliance like the U.S., Canada, Guyana and Brazil are also planning to add supply, Gloystein highlighted.

Bearish year ahead for oil

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Have you had a ride in a driverless vehicle?

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Have you had a ride in a driverless vehicle?

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