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In what continues to feel like the ultimate tool hack, I’ve been running my electric tractor completely off-grid. I haven’t paid to charge it in months and it feels like I’m somehow cheating, always having the power of heavy machinery at my fingertips with absolutely zero fuel cost.

Here’s how I wake up to a full “tank” every day, for free.

Having an electric tractor has been incredibly useful on my family’s homestead where I keep it. It’s actually an articulating wheel loader, and so it does plenty of jobs beyond mere pulling tasks, including various material handling, hole digging for tree planting, trench digging, moving pallets and heavy equipment around, spreading mulch, moving compost, grading surfaces, etc.

Because it’s electric, I don’t have the major maintenance issues of a diesel tractor, and it’s just a lot nicer to use every day because it’s not loud, smelling of exhaust, or creating an uncomfortably hot working environment on days that are frankly already too hot.

On the other hand, I can’t just keep fuel cans around to instantly top it up whenever I want. With a run time of 4-6 hours per charge, it handles our needs but still needs to be charged back up regularly.

But as you can imagine, I don’t always want to rely on a wall outlet that is several acres away. As an alternative, I decided to create a charging shed out of a 20-foot shipping container.

I wrote an entire article on building the charging shed, so you can check that out for more details on the build on the build process. But to summarize, the container has 1,200 watts of solar panels on top that feed an 8 kWh battery bank inside it.

Compared to trying to build a new barn or install a prefab metal building, this shipping container is much, much cheaper.

The actual container cost me around US $3,000, and I just had to do the legwork of moving it out into the pasture by using a set of EZYwheels that let me tow the whole thing like a trailer (behind the tractor it would soon be charging, no less!).

Towing roughly 6,000 pounds (approximately 2,700 kg) across a bumpy pasture isn’t for the faint of heart, but it seemed to work just fine when you go slow and the ground isn’t too wet to get traction.

Once in place, the container creates both a place to store the tractor so it’s not out exposed to the elements and a place to charge it up during the day.

The total battery capacity of my wheel loader is actually slightly larger than the battery capacity in the container. There’s 8 kWh of storage in the container but 9 kWh in my wheel loader, though I never really run the loader all the way to empty so it’s easy enough to charge it just from my stored energy. And I never worry about not having enough charge left in the container because it is charging itself from the sun every day.

In strong sun, I can get over 800 watts of continuous charging into the container’s battery bank, though on cloudy days that can drop to just 100-200 watts. Fortunately, the 8 kWh is enough to hold me over on cloudy days, and it’s not like I’m using the tractor commercially. It gets a few hours of use each day, whenever we’ve got tasks on hand that require it.

I originally had a small portable air conditioner in the container to try and keep things inside from baking like an oven, but I found that the white paint of the container kept it from heating up too much in the sun. Plus the 1,500 W of power that the air conditioner was pulling was really chewing into my stored energy, depleting my battery bank overnight. Ultimately I decided to deep six the A/C and instead I will likely look at a smaller and more efficient mini-split in the future.

However, I still wanted to keep the container from getting too humid as a way to protect the various electric vehicles I park in there. So, in place of the A/C unit, I put in a single-room dehumidifier that pulls around 100 W from my container’s batteries. It works great to keep the humidity down but barely makes a dent in my battery bank’s charge level!

With this setup, I’ve created an entirely off-grid system where my electric tractor is always powered by solar energy. The tractor would already have been pretty cheap to charge from a wall outlet back at the house or garage building, costing around a dollar and a half to refuel it each time the batteries are empty. However, by using a solar-powered setup, now it’s basically free to charge (not including the initial expense of the solar setup, of course).

For me, this was never an exercise in trying to save money though, largely since the cost of charging electric vehicles at home is already so incredibly cheap. Instead, it was about creating a convenient way to charge and store these types of vehicles, and it allows me to also keep my e-bikes, e-scooters, and other e-tools out of the weather and fully charged up. For example, we just got an electric chainsaw and now I can run that off-grid as well.

In a pinch, I could probably use the container as emergency power after a bad storm, assuming the solar panels haven’t blown into the next area code (this was a DIY build and it’s definitely not hurricane-rated). And if so, at least the batteries will still hold a charge until they’re depleted!

This might not be the best solution for everyone, but it worked well for my use, creating dual purpose weather-proof storage and off-grid charging in a single structure. The system could obviously be scaled up or down for larger or smaller needs, and has the advantage of being highly customizable for different requirements. If someone only wants to keep their e-bikes charged up off-grid, a much smaller solar array and battery bank would be sufficient. For someone wanting to run their Tesla off-grid, a significantly larger system would be needed.

The sky is the limit. And it’s the energy source, too!

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What EV sales slump? Illinois’ EV sales outpace the nation by 4:1

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What EV sales slump? Illinois' EV sales outpace the nation by 4:1

Fueled by incentives from the Illinois EPA and the state’s largest utility company, new EV registrations nearly quadrupled the 12% first-quarter increase in EV registrations nationally – and there are no signs the state is slowing down.

Despite the dramatic slowdown of Tesla’s US deliveries, sales of electric vehicles overall have perked up in recent months, with Illinois’ EV adoption rate well above the Q1 uptick nationally. Crain’s Chicago Business reports that the number of new EVs registered across the state totaled 9,821 January through March, compared with “just” 6,535 EVs registered in the state during the same period in 2024.

Those numbers represent more than 50% growth in EV registrations – far beyond the expected 12% first-quarter increase nationally being projected by Cox Automotive. (!)

What’s going on in Illinois?

File:Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker (33167937268).jpg
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker at the Chicago Auto Show; by Ray Cunningham.

While President Trump and Elmo were running for re-election, they campaigned on the threat promise of canceling the $7,500 federal tax credit for EVs. Along with California Governor Gavin Newsom, Illinois’ Governor JB Pritzker made countermoves – launching a $4,000 rebate for new electric cars and up to $1,500 for the purchase of a new electric motorcycle.

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At the same time, the state’s largest utility, ComEd, launched a $90 million EV incentive program featuring a new Point of Purchase initiative to deliver instant discounts to qualifying business and public sector customers who make the switch to electric vehicles. That program has driven a surge in Class 3-6 medium duty commercial EVs, which are eligible fro $20-30,000 in utility rebates on top of federal tax credits and other incentives (Class 1-2 EVs are eligible for up to $7,500).

We covered the launch of those incentives when the program was announced at Chicago Drives Electric last year, but the message here is simple: incentives work.

SOURCES: Chicago Business, Ray Cunningham; featured image by the author.

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XCMG launches XE215EV battery swap electric excavator ahead of bauma

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XCMG launches XE215EV battery swap electric excavator ahead of bauma

The electric construction equipment experts at XCMG just released a new, 25 ton electric crawler excavator ahead of bauma 2025 – and they have their eye on the global urban construction, mine operations, and logistical material handling markets.

Powered by a high-capacity 400 kWh lithium iron phosphate battery capable of delivering up to 8 hours of continuous operation, the XE215EV electric excavator promises uninterrupted operation at a lower cost of ownership and with even less downtime than its diesel counterparts.

XCMG is delivering on part of that reduced downtime promise with the lower maintenance and easier repair needs of electric equipment, and delivering on the rest of it with lickety-quick DC fast charging that can recharge the machine’s massive battery in 1.5-2 hours … but that’s not the slick bit. The XCMG XE125EV can be powered up without leaving the job site thanks to its BYD battery swap technology.

We first covered XCMG and its battery swap technology back in January, and covered similar battery-swap tech being developed by MOOG Construction offshoot ZQUIP, as well – but while XCMG’s battery tech has been in production for several years, it’s still not widely known about in the West (even within the industry).

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XCMG showed off its latest electric equipment at the December 2024 bauma China, including an updated version of its of its 85-ton autonomous electric mining truck that features a fully cab-less design – meaning there isn’t even a place for an operator to sit, let alone operate. And that’s too bad, because what operator wouldn’t want to experience an electric truck putting down 1070 hp more than 16,000 lb-ft of torque!?

Easy in, easy out

XCMG battery swap crane; via Etrucks New Zealand.

The best part? All of the company’s heavy equipment assets – from excavators to terminal tractors to dump trucks and wheel loaders – all use the same 400 kWh BYD battery packs, Milwaukee tool style. That means an equipment fleet can utilize x number of vehicles with a fraction of the total battery capacity and material needs of other asset brands. That’s not just a smart use of limited materials, it’s a smarter use of energy.

You can check out all the XE215EV’s specs at this tear sheet, and get an in-person look at the Chinese company’s latest electric excavator this week in Munich, Germany.

SOURCE | IMAGES: XCMG.

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Volvo shows off production PU500 battery energy storage system

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Volvo shows off production PU500 battery energy storage system

As “extreme” weather events become more commonplace, the demand for reliable and portable energy continues to rise. In response to that growing demand for dependable off-grid power, Volvo has developed the new PU500 Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) designed to take electrical power when it’s needed most.

Designed to be deployable in a number of environments at a moment’s notice, the Volvo Energy PU500 BESS is equipped with approximately 500 kWh of usable battery capacity (up to 540 kWh total). More than enough juice, in other words, to power a remote construction site, disaster response effort, or even a music festival – anything that needs access to reliable electricity beyond a grid connection.

That’s great, but what sets the PU500 apart from other battery storage solutions is its integrated 240 kW DC fast charger.

“With an integrated CCS2 charger, the PU500 is designed to work with all brands of electric equipment, trucks, and passenger cars,” says Niklas Thulin, Head of BESS Product Offer at Volvo Energy. “This ensures that no matter what type of electric vehicle or machinery you rely on, the PU500 can provide the power you need, making it a truly flexible solution for any grid constrained site or location.”

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The integrated charger in the PU500 has the impressive ability to charge a heavy equipment asset (be that an electric semi truck or something like a wheel loader) in under two hours. Its on-board capacity allows to fully recharge up to 3 electric HD trucks or 20 electric cars per day, making it an incredibly versatile disaster response asset.

Electrek’s Take

Stockholm progresses with electric construction site from Volvo CE
Electric job site; via Volvo CE.

As we often say over at The Heavy Equipment Podcast, “just because you’re working for the power company doesn’t mean you have power,” and there are hundreds of scenarios where the extra power provided by something like the new PU500 would be useful. Its ability to be palletized and easily moved or swapped out of a larger BESS array, too, just add to its flexibility.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo.

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