An electric loader at Kaingaroa Processing Plant (KPP) has become the little loader that could.
Owned by Rotorua Forest Haulage (RFH), and supplied by Etrucks in Auckland, the Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) arrived in New Zealand in 2024.
Manufactured by Chinese company XCMG, the 23.1 tonne XC 975 EV has 270kW total power, two 100kW drive motors, a 70kW hydraulic motor and a 423kWh CATL battery. It has been in use mostly loading highway logging trucks at KPP for just over a year.
RFH’s Kaingaroa Site Manager, Jay McLean, says the loader is already proving its value.
“It doesn’t lift as much as a Cat, and you wouldn’t expect it to, but it lifts way more than we were told it would, safely,” he says.
“We had to get the technicians to come back and rewrite the program to say ‘don’t lift as much little buddy’ because it was always like the little loader that could – it would just go in and try and lift everything.”
That adjustment was just part of the fine tuning that has been done since RFH took delivery of the loader.
But let’s start at the beginning.
RFH Operations Manager, Sam Sargison, says, when RFH started looking at the possibility of bringing in an electric loader, it had already had a BEV truck on order and Kaingaroa Tipu was in the process of installing charging infrastructure on site at KPP.
“Given that commitment to electrification, and the availability of charging capability, trialling an EV loader was viewed as a logical next step and an opportunity to evaluate the technology in our operation,” he says.
A key consideration was to find an electric loader that was comparable in size, capability and performance to the Cat 966 loaders already operating on site.
“The objective was to gather meaningful real-world operational data, so it was important that any EV loader trialled could perform the same tasks and work under the same conditions as our existing fleet.”
At the time, there were very few manufacturers offering battery-electric loaders in this size class, with XCMG effectively the only supplier with an EV loader equivalent to a Cat 966 that was commercially available and suitable for RFH’s needs.
Modifications made
The loader arrived in New Zealand around March 2024. Before it could be put to work at KPP, a number of modifications were required to ensure it was suitable for log yard operations.
After arriving, the loader was sent to Ensign, where a set of log forks was designed, built and fitted. Belly pans were also installed under the machine to provide extra protection.
Once that work was completed, the loader was delivered to RFH, where further site-specific modifications were carried out. These included modifying the rear bonnet gate and fitting radios and lighting systems to meet operational requirements.
Initial impressions were very positive, says Sam.
“One of the first things that stood out was how quiet the loader was compared with the diesel machines we were used to operating. The reduction in noise was immediately noticeable and created a much more comfortable working environment for the...
