Hitachi Construction Machinery has announced it has formed an agreement with KTEG Kiesel Technologie Entwicklung GmbH – the group company of European Hitachi Construction Machinery’s distributor Kiesel GmbH – to establish a new company for developing electric construction machinery and the special application products for further expansion of the European market.
“Hitachi Construction Machinery has long developed electric construction machinery to help reduce environmental burden and life cycle costs. Hitachi Construction Machinery has developed wired electric excavators with small to medium sized equipment used in plants as a base, supplying over 100 in mostly the Japanese market to date. In addition, Hitachi Construction Machinery has supplied wired electric ultra-large hydraulic excavators to many mines. And Hitachi Construction Machinery has been involved in the development of battery-powered electric excavators from an early stage, starting with the ZX70B in 2006.”
Meanwhile, the European market has some of the strictest regulations in the world regarding global warming prevention and low carbon society realisation, making electricity needs particularly strong in this region for both automobiles and construction machinery. KTEG has a wealth of know-how for regulating and commercialising electric construction machinery in the European market.
“To respond to the various needs of customers in the European market, it is typical for distributors and remodeling companies to develop and sell special application products for specifications that cannot be handled by standard models. KTEG has developed large demolition specification equipment and other special application products based on the hydraulic excavators of Hitachi Construction Machinery.”
With the establishment of this new company, the electric technology of Hitachi Construction Machinery and technical know-how of KTEG will be brought together to utilize the components of current equipment, and creating electric construction machinery that respond to the needs of customers will be made possible.
The Hitachi Construction Machinery Group will continue to cooperate with various business partners “through open innovation, constantly considering solutions for customer issues, including improving safety and productivity, and reducing life cycle costs, as well as reducing environmental burden as they develop products with high added value.”
Outline of the new company:
• Company name – EAC European Application Center GmbH
• Head office location – Stockstadt am Rhein, Hessen, Germany
• Representative – Toni Kiesel
• Starting no. of personnel – approximately 10
• Capital – 500,000 EUR (approximately 64 million JPY)
• Investment ratio – Hitachi Construction Machinery 49.9%, KTEG 50.1%
• Investment period – Scheduled for within 2018 on the approval of the Competition Authorities of Germany and Poland
• Business operations –Development of electric construction machinery and special application products
