46 January/February 2026 | E-Mobility Engineering Volvo CE is taking on the task of electrification of heavy-duty off-highway vehicles. Peter Donaldson has unearthed all the details Rough, tough and electric Clean air and quiet are not associated with construction sites in the public mind; rather, the imagined scene is characterised by the roar of diesel engines powering excavators, dump trucks, pile drivers, cement mixers and generators. The picture is similar in agriculture and forestry, where diesel-engined tractors, telehandlers, harvesters, forwarders and others dominate. Although modern diesels are far cleaner and quieter than their predecessors, the writing is on the wall and this sector is being transformed through electrification. Heavy-duty off-highway applications present their own set of challenges for engineers tasked with electrifying existing vehicles and developing BEVs, hybrids and FCEVs from scratch. Many such vehicles need both high peak power for digging, lifting, pushing etc and long operational run times in applications where shifts of 8 or 12 hours or more are common. They also have to operate in environments where they are exposed to vibration, shock, extremes of heat and/or cold and contamination by dust, water and aggressive chemicals – far in excess of automotive requirements. Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) has invested heavily in electrification in this space, developing grid-connected and off-grid charging systems, remote vehicle- and fleet-management systems and electromechanical actuation in addition to the vehicles themselves. The company is also part of the Emissionfree Network Infrastructure initiative, an industry collaboration established to create a coordinated, emission-free energy charging infrastructure in Europe to support the growing fleet of electric machinery. Ahcène Nedjimi, expert in global e-mobility and system architect at Volvo CE, explains the company’s nuanced approach. Diverse platforms Vehicles in this space are highly diverse, and don’t lend themselves easily to a uniform style of chassis architecture, such as a skateboard for example, while a bespoke architecture for each model or category is neither efficient, nor scalable for a manufacturer that builds in a wide range of categories. Furthermore, the diversity of key powertrain components such as the energy storage system, electric drive units, power electronics and their integration requirements make a single solution unviable, he emphasises. The solution, he adds, is to take a platform-based approach to strike a balance between technical flexibility and business efficiency. “By developing a scalable architecture with defined variants such as mini, medium and large performance segments, we can accommodate different power and range needs while leveraging common subsystems,” he says. “This approach reduces development cost, shortens engineering cycles, and enables economies of scale in procurement and manufacturing.” The company’s electrified vehicle range encompasses articulated haulers, excavators (both tracked and wheeled), material handlers and wheel loaders, ranging from the EC18 Electric compact excavator with its 1955 kg operating Volvo’s focus in terms of its production electrified vehicles in the off-highway space is on BEVs, such as this L90 large wheel loader, but it continues to explore other options (All images: Volvo CE)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mzk4