which stacks up favourably with traditional diesel alternatives,” he added. “Our clients love having the low noise, zero emissions machines on their site and it helps us to get contracts over the line. I think we will see a lot more of these on developments across the country.”
Johnson Plant Hire was established to supply plant to sister company Landmark Groundworks and now operates a fleet of more than 100 machines, all of which are JCBs. It was able to win a raft of new contracts thanks to the electric diggers.
While London is an obvious market for all-electric machines, Johnson Plant is finding many more uses for the electric excavators elsewhere in the South East. “We have supplied them to a lot of jobs across Kent,” said Johnson. “Contractors across the board are looking to reduce their emissions; it isn’t just happening in London.
The battery-powered BENDie enables quick, and quiet working.
“The main challenge for us is the difference in price,” said Simon Tomblin, managing director. “A 1.5 tonne mini digger might cost you £15,000 if you buy a diesel, but nearer £40,000 for the electric version. This is fine if you have plenty of jobs that can’t be done by diesel machines, such as internal work, but we simply don’t get enough enquiries along those lines to justify it right now. I dare say it will change in the future. At the moment, customers like it but don’t want to pay a premium for it.”
However, Tomblin says he had very positive experiences of these green machines. “We have done a couple of jobs at schools where the customer needed to access a quadrangle and remove the excavated material through the school corridors. We’ve also put electric machines into cold stores. Going electric is the only option in both cases and it worked pretty well.”
Diminutive dimensions aside, the BENDie can certainly take the heavy lifting.
“Demand in the capital is driven by regulations on emissions, but we are seeing a lot of clients who are adapting that into their business practices outside of London. They don’t have to do it, but they want to do it.”
“We choose to invest in lower emission machines before it becomes mandatory to do so,” said Johnson. “Part of our reasoning is that we want to see bigger all-electric machines in the future. Buying now will help JCB to progress further and develop the larger machines. If everything was about cost and return, it would not be good for innovation. Sometimes you have to take a bit of a risk. Our view is that one day they will bring out the bigger machines because people like us bought the smaller one.”
“We are also looking at the electric mini dumpers, but they are better suited to garden work and other jobs where they don’t have to travel too far. We predominantly use the bigger dumpers so once they become available, we will be very interested.”
Gloucester-based Rocket Rentals has tested some demonstrator models and also cross-hired compact electric equipment as required, including hybrid excavators and all-electric powered barrows.
37
Rocket Rentals – named Passionate Hirer of the Year in 2019 - continues to evaluate electric and hybrid machines, with a view to investing when the time is right. “At our premises we have PV on the roof and electric car charging points; and have recently ordered some all-electric pick-up trucks as company vehicles. We want to do our bit, but when it comes to compact machines, the gap is still too big between capital outlay and the return we could generate.”
•
And one of the biggest advantages of battery technology is no noxious emissions on site, of course.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
