Liugong India Electric Excavator & Wheel Loader: Operation & Cost Benefit

Construction and mining equipment conglomerate Liugong India is seeing growing acceptance of its electric and tracked excavators and battery-powered wheel loaders which the company has launched at the Bauma Conexpo India 2023 and Excon 2023 trade events. In view of the rising sales, the company is strategizing greater product placement across various applicable sectors and regions in India.


“We are working with various industry segments in the infrastructure and mining space for application of our electric excavators and battery-operated wheel loaders,” informs Mehrotra. “EV machines do not require diesel fuel and have moderate maintenance and running costs, plus our solutions come with lower operating costs which gives a definite advantage to users.”

He informs that Liugong’s 820 TE, 2 Tonne Payload capacity, LFP, battery-operated wheel loader is very suitable for ready-mix concrete (RMC) industries for undertaking both loading and heaping jobs, plus there is ready availability of grid power to run the RMC plants. “Particularly during the winter months in North India and in some other parts of the country, there is either a lot of smog or dust, which pose a health hazard to the workers and the suspended particulate matters can also disrupt operations of mobile equipment engines at the RMC plants. This leads to high maintenance costs.”

Our 820 TE Wheel loader can work uninterrupted with faster cycle times leading to higher loading volumes, and there is no diesel consumption or maintenance requirements, as like the internal combustion engines, the loaders will go towards complete curtailment of fuel and maintenance costs. The 820 TE with its LFP battery with a storage capacity of 70.5 kWh can work for 5-7 hours at a stretch to operate in an 60 cum/hr plant with a single charge of the battery sets - even when the plant is working with full capacity. For 90 cum/hr plant, the loader batteries will need one hour of extra charge. The owner / operator has to simply charge and forget!”

The 820 TE has a 1.2 cum bucket and a peak power of 50 kw drive motor. It can work at ambient temperatures of -35 to 85 degrees centigrade. It features a transmission from Liugong with a countershaft power shift and a maximum travel speed of 19km/hr. It has an AC cabin and Liugong’s I-Link telematics. The machine is offered with a quick release coupler, gripper, and forks as optional.

Apart from the RMC plants, Liugong is pitching the 820 TE wheel loader to stone quarries running with 90+ tph crushing plants.

Mehrotra further adds, “For a typical 250 tph crushing plant, there is a thumb rule to run the plant for 14-15 hours at a stretch for scale of operation. Once the operations stop, the high volume of the processed materials will require stacking, heaping, and loading in the typical wooden bodied trucks and in dump trucks. Based on the such configuration of the plant and the layout, Liugong is also offering its bigger 856 HE E-MAX wheel loader of 5.8 tons Payload capacity, which is powered by lithium iron phosphate battery and has a rated storage capacity of 350 kWh, and comes with a 3.5 cum standard bucket. This product is better suited for bigger quarries that run on plants with 250+ tph configurations and which operate for longer hours.

“The 856 HE E-MAX is also suited for use in steel, power and cements plants that have a stable grid power availability. This loader has a lower initial cost compared to similar class of loaders of European and US OEMs, and it incurs minimal running and maintenance costs. Plus, we also provide the charging station / arrangement.”

In line with its other EV offerings, Liugong India is positioning its 922 FE, 22-ton electric excavator with 1.0 cum HD/1.25 cum general purpose bucket for the infrastructure and quarry sectors. “The 922 FE is well suited for continuous hopper loading in crushing and screening plants and also to work in the stockpiles for arranging the processed aggregates stocks and to do the heaping job, not only for the finished aggregates but also for materials like manufactured sand,” informs Mehrotra.


The electric system of the 922 FE features an IPMSM motor that delivers a rated power of 140 kw, powered by AC 380V working input voltage. Power is supplied to the excavator through a cable attached to a rotating pulley mounted on a temporary lattice tower. The cable draws power from the local grid arrangements. The set of the equipment is provided by Liugong. However, the cable attached to the pulley placed on top of the fixed towers, restricts free movement of the excavator across the site. To curtail this, Liugong India is working towards making a mobile arrangement that can hold the cable and move along with the excavator across the work/quarry site and undertake various jobs.

Liugong’s electric excavators and wheel loaders are deployed at LSC Infratech’s Haldwani crushing plant in Uttarakhand. Avers Saurabh Agarwal, Director, LSC Infratech Ltd, “Both the machines, ever since their delivery and commissioning, have been working perfectly fine and for longer hours without any downtime. Since there is no diesel being used, there is no pollution at the site. What’s more, we are getting assured support for the machines by Liugong such that we are using them optimally in our crushing plants.”

Liugong India has a dedicated team for servicing and training its customers personnel on its machines and certifying them for handling EV machines. This is excluding to do the services and maintenance of the hydraulic components.

Countering the fact that the higher capacity 856 HE E MAX wheel loaders and the 820 TE will eat into the share of Liugong’s 856 internal combustion driven loader that enjoys a strong brand recall, Mehrotra said that the battery and electric operated machines are being offered only to industry segments that have a captive power backup.