With its green solutions, Tadano’s environmental commitment is making a worldwide contribution to the goal of a decarbonised society. Tadano’s commitment to protecting our environment and contributing to the fight against climate change is manifesting itself in increasingly tangible ways.
With its new slogan, “Our True Mission: Zero Emissions,” the company is highlighting its commitment to reducing CO2 emissions from its business activities by 25 per cent and from the use of its products by 35 per cent by 2030. Moreover, the goal is to be completely climate neutral by 2050 – zero emissions. To achieve these objectives, the company has grouped together its solutions for greater sustainability under the name of Tadano Green Solutions (TGS). The result of all this was presented at ConExpo, and the message is crystal clear.
Fully electric rough terrain cranes:
Tadano told the world it was working on a fully electric rough terrain crane in April 2021. That crane was showcased at this year’s ConExpo to industry members for the first time ever as a fully functional prototype. Its name? The GR-1000XLL EVOLT.
Since making its debut at the major Las Vegas event, Tadano has been busy preparing for an official launch – and 2024 is the year to do it.
Tadano says the GR-1000XLL EVOLT will be launched in 2024 – first in the USA and in Canada with additional releases in other countries such as Australia to follow.
“This crane will make an invaluable contribution to achieving our goal of reducing the CO2 emissions from our products by 35 per cent by 2030,” underscores Toshiaki Ujiie, President and CEO of Tadano Ltd.
This should come as no surprise, as the GR-1000XLL EVOLT can travel to work sites and take care of all lifting operations there using energy supplied by its batteries exclusively, making fully zero-emission operation possible.
Also remarkable is the fact that a single battery charge is enough for up to nine hours of crane operation, or five hours of crane operation with a travel distance of up to 20 km.
As a result, the battery’s capacity is enough to cover an entire typical workday for this crane model.
Moreover, the integrated regenerative braking function lengthens both running time and range.
On top of this, the engineers at Tadano have also achieved something amazing with the charging time, namely that it is a mere two hours with fast charging on a US-COMBO CCS1 connection and only about seven hours with normal charging on a three-phase 240 VAC, 100 A commercial power supply connection.
In addition, unlimited operation with the crane plugged into a power outlet is available as well.
It is worth mentioning that the crane’s lifting performance is exactly the same as that of its diesel-driven counterpart, the GR-1000XLL-4.
But where the GR-1000XLL EVOLT truly stands apart from its diesel counterpart is environmental friendliness, with Tadano calculating savings of around 8,328 litres of diesel and a resulting reduction of close to 22t of CO2 emissions a year for an average crane usage scenario.
Its powerful electric motor delivers a maximum output of 194 kW, ensuring that the GR-1000XLL EVOLT has the exact same lifting capacity and operating speed. It offers a top speed of 18 km/h, and its dimensions are exactly the same as those of the GR-1000XLL-4.
An electric drive that comes with many more advantages
The electric motor not only provides the rough terrain crane with environmentally friendly operation, but also with significantly lower noise levels during work, all while eliminating exhaust emissions. These two factors come with considerable advantages for customers in a multitude of scenarios, including projects in urban areas with noise regulations, nighttime lifting work, and indoor assignments.
Part of the Tadano Green Solutions strategy: More sustainability at work
The development of the GR-1000XXL EVOLT is clearly tied to Tadano’s sustainability philosophy and its long-term environmental goals, which Toshiaki said was so important for the company.
“In our role as the Tadano Group, we are deeply aware of our social responsibility for the environment and climate. This is why we’ve committed ourselves to actively and significantly contributing to making a decarbonized society a reality with our products and manufacturing processes,” he said.
“With the GR-1000XXL EVOLT as an important tech demo, we’ve taken a crucial step towards that goal.”
APU Auxiliary power unit reduces fuel consumption and co2 emissions by 25 per cent
During ConExpo, Tadano also introduced its diesel-driven APU auxiliary power unit on a GR-800XL-4 rough terrain crane for the first time.
The unit is already currently approved for use as an optional accessory for new orders of Tadano RT models GR-1000XLL and GT-1000XL-4 in the USA and Canada.
The unit’s nine horsepower, two-cylinder engine has an extremely low fuel consumption rate of only 0.75 litres of diesel fuel per hour.
Moreover, by producing an output of 972 W, the APU is able to supply electric power for numerous important crane functions while the onboard engine is off.
This includes the floodlights and aviation obstruction beacon, the wipers for the windshield and roof, the HVAC system, the USB outlet, and, of course, all important display functions inside the cockpit.
Tadano calculates that the APU can reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by around a fourth when compared to the onboard diesel engine’s idle running.
In development: Electrified CC 88.1600-1 lattice boom crawler crane
It is worth mentioning that the flagship of the Tadano CC range of cranes will also be available with an electric drive in the future.
The engineers at Tadano are working on giving the CC 88.1600-1, the company’s biggest crane, an electrified sibling.
An electrical cable connection will ensure that the giant will be able to run with absolutely zero CO2 emissions, with the lattice boom crawler crane’s electric motor planned to have a power of 2 x 390 kW so that it can deliver the same lifting capacity as its diesel-driven counterpart.
In addition, there will be flexible options for supplying power, with 6,000 V and 6,600 V 50 Hz connections and 6,600V 60 Hz connections all working for this purpose.
Electric aerial work platform
A truck-based electric aerial work platform for the Japanese market is also currently in development, and in fact is already undergoing prototype testing. Both its travel and lifting operation with a maximum working height of 56 ft (17.1 m) will be purely electric. It is also worth adding that the development partner for this Tadano Green Solutions project is Australian company SEA Electric, which specialises in electrifying trucks and buses.
With its compact dimensions, the electrically driven vehicle is being explicitly designed for travelling and working on tight Japanese roads. Nevertheless, the compact truck wheelbase of only 2.515m has not kept the developers from integrating a suitably large and powerful battery into the unit: Its capacity will be around 100 kW/h, ensuring that a single battery charge will be enough for a travel distance of around 100 km and five hours of operation. In addition, the vehicle’s top speed is also remarkable, as it is just under 100 km/h. The vehicle is planned to be presented for the first time in 2024, with its launch to follow in 2025.
Electro-hydraulic “e-PACK” makes zero-emission crane operation possible
Tadano introduced its e-PACK in Europe all the way back in 2019. It is an electro-hydraulic system featuring an integrated 32-kW electric motor that works with zero emissions and nearly zero noise – and without any loss in lifting capacity to boot. All that is needed is for the crane to set down the e-PACK where it will be used so that it can be connected to an external 400 V / 63 A or 400 V / 32 A power supply. The e-PACK is currently available for all new Tadano AC cranes with lifting capacities of up to 80 tonnes, as well as a retrofit for existing cranes.
Hybrid tech demo: All terrain crane with electrified superstructure
Both Tadano customers and the entire industry were thrilled at last year’s bauma in Germany after seeing a tech demo for a Tadano all terrain crane, based on the AC 4.070-1, with a fully electrified superstructure. The special thing about it: The crane was fully functional and completely self-sufficient under all operating conditions thanks to a flexible power supply concept. More specifically, the electric superstructure was able to run on any of the three following options: the integrated battery, an external power connection, or a generator on the diesel engine that delivered power for the electric motor.
The electric motor’s working speed and delivered lifting capacity were exactly at the same level as those of a diesel engine, not to mention that its sound emissions were much lower under all lifting conditions. Also remarkable was the fact that the tech demo achieved a system efficiency of around 85 per cent, which is more than double the energy efficiency of an efficient diesel engine. This resulted in the tech demo having a significantly better carbon footprint, including a CO2 reduction of up to 50 per cent when compared to diesel-operated superstructures.
Blazing a trail
Toshiaki says these changes show that Tadano is making real change happen.
“This all shows that we’re on the right path with Our True Mission: Zero Emissions and our Tadano Green Solutions,” he said.
“I’m confident that we’ll be able to achieve our sustainability goals in our role as a highly innovative company that is aware of its responsibility towards our world, and that we’ll take on a trailblazer role in our industry with our technologically leading solutions.”
*Do speak to a Tadano Oceania Sales representative and discuss what options will be available to the Oceania market. Features and launch dates are yet to be finalised and may differ between markets.
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