PON Equipment builds world’s biggest battery-electric excavators – equipped with CEJN ultraFLOW

Pon Equipment, the Norwegian dealer of Caterpillar machines, is now bringing heavy-duty battery-electric excavators of 12 and 25-tons into the global market. At this level of power, an efficient liquid cooling system connected to the battery is required. The CEJN ultraFLOW quick couplings ease the connection and disconnection of the liquid cooling system, facilitating the maintenance and ensures no-spill during operation.

Norway has come a long way in the transition to electric vehicles and machinery – from ferries to cars, and heavy-duty construction machines. The Norwegian division of Pon Equipment, part of Pon Holding and a machine agent to Caterpillar, is investing in their third generation of battery electric excavators by converting 12 and 25-tons diesel excavators to be fully electric, a project they are the first in the world to present to the global market.

A zero-emission goal  

Z-line, the name of the excavators, stands for Zero line – a zero-emission machine. That is what this is all about, an attempt to reduce emissions coming from construction machines and contribute to the work in reaching the climate goals.

“The construction industry is responsible for 30 percent of the carbon emissions in Norway”, says Jon Einar Holum, Manager Engineering at Pon Equipment and continues:

“With that in mind, the idea of an urban construction machine was born.”

Same performance as the diesel-powered engines

There are electrified construction machines on the market, but not of this size. Never have the powertrain of an excavator of 12 and 25 tons gone fully electric, making Pon a pioneer in the field.

“This is an all-round machine that Pon is the first in the world to present to the market”, Holum says. 

The exterior of the excavator looks like the diesel engine version, but the inside is different. Pon buys the machines without the standard diesel engines from CAT. Instead, they assemble a large electric motor into the excavator, having the same performance as the diesel-powered engine.

Photo: Pon Equipment AS

Well-developed thermal management with quick couplings needed

The power train system integration of the electrical engine, battery pack and cooling system, etc. is all developed and tested by Pon with the support from CAT. The battery pack is delivered from Northvolt and is a heavy-duty battery of 300 kWh, weighing around 3,4 tons. A fully charged battery gives around five to seven working hours and one hour charging equals one hour of operation. With fast charging, it takes two hours to fully charge the battery. A well-designed and high-quality thermal management solution are necessary to dissipate the heat when the power goes up.

The liquid cooling system, constructed by Pon, is connected with CEJN ultraFLOW, a high-flow quick coupling, into the battery from Northvolt.  

“The CEJN ultraFLOW works very well when connecting and disconnecting the liquid cooling system as the couplings are easy to connect, is lightweight, and ensures no-spill,” Holum says.

Once the battery has reached the end of its service life, CEJN ultraFLOW facilitates the replacement into a new one in a quick, safe and easy way.

Pon Equipment AS

Head office: Skedsmokorset, Norway
Founded: 1930
Number of employees: 13,000 (PON Holding)
Industry: Construction industry
Products: CAT construction machines from 0,9 ton up to 256 ton
Markets: Global
Website: Pon Equipment | About us (pon-cat.com)