At the AWRE Expo in Sydney during July I noticed the large green wheel loader on the LiuGong stand with the EMax logo. I knew they had recently showcased the 856H-E Max, a mid-sized battery electric wheel loader, at the opening of their new facility in Melbourne so I caught up with Shannon Bethe, Director at LiuGong Australia, to learn more about their future plans.
I started by asking, is the electric powered machinery new for LiuGong? And how many products in the range?
Technically it’s not (new), so the 856 E electric is a second generation electric product. This isn’t a concept machine. We have 2,000 machines working out in the field around the world. About 100,000 hours on those machines.
And this isn’t a standalone machine. It isn’t an XP product like you see at other manufacturers. LiuGong has the largest electrical equipment range, fully electric range of any OEM in the world. We have skid steer loaders, graders, five or six different wheel loader models now, six different excavator models, and some other other gear like electric forklifts and scissor lifts.
Is there a demand for electric waste and construction machinery in Australia?
The demand for electric products in Australia is in its infancy. Overseas, in countries with greener solutions like China, where we originated, they’ve got a lot of hydro and they’ve got a lot of green solutions already.
In Australia, it’s a little bit slower. But it’s really just about educating the customer on the total cost of ownership.
So yes, the price can be two times the price of your diesel equivalent, but over the total cost of ownership, you’re actually in front on a green machine. So initial capex outlays is higher, but over the total cost of ownership, over five years, seven years, 10,000 plus hours. The green solution is more affordable. So it’s just about educating the customers and there has been an increased push for this product or these types of products in the last year.
So organisations are looking at electric passenger vehicles and trucks to reduce emissions, wouldn’t electric plant and machinery like the 856H-E Max eliminate a significant amount of CO2?
Yes, correct. So a lot of companies, or the fleet companies, at the moment are looking at the on-highway gear like fully electric rubbish collection vehicles, or buses. Essentially those rubbish collection vehicles, 20-30 machines that they’re putting into X or Y accounts, or X or Y fleet, are coming back to a waste transfer facility with three or four diesel machines operating in that facility. They’re plugging in to the chargers and the infrastructure they’ve developed for these fleet vehicles.
What we can at LiuGong is that next level, we can also provide the electric machines to do the waste handling, and the waste management. You can also have an electric machine that plugs into the same charge point they installed for their electric fleet vehicles.
Can you tell our audience about LiuGong? Who are they? Where to they fit in the global market?
LiuGong in the top 10 of global earthmoving equipment, and waste equipment manufacturers. We are one of the oldest Chinese companies in the earthmoving industry, celebrating our 65th anniversary this year. LiuGong pride ourselves on being the premium Chinese brand.
LiuGong work with the premium suppliers. We have the premium components. We have a JV with Cummins in China, we run their factory. ZF are a JV Partner. We work with other premium providers of components, like Kawasaki and Bosch.
In Australia we’re the premium Chinese brand. We were the first Chinese brand in the country; 20 years as of next year. We would probably rank in the top five to seven of OEMs for total earthmoving sales.
A lot of customers don’t have visibility on how many machines LiuGong sell in Australia, which is a significant quantity. We are only outsold by a few brands in wheel loaders sector. LiuGong sell around 200 wheel loaders in the Australian market a year.
That’s a brief overview of LiuGong Australia. We are the premium Chinese brand with the largest dealer network of any Chinese brand in the Australian market, and the oldest with one partner selling LiuGong machines for over 18 years.
