The lack of an industry standard governing 48 V DC charging solutions for electric compact construction machines means that operators must source different chargers to accommodate multi-branded fleets. To remedy this situation, Volvo Construction Equipment is making its brand-agnostic software protocol and plug specifications used on its 48 V off-board DC chargers freely available.
Other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers can now use the protocol in the development of their own charging solutions for compact machines. Its publication is intended to support the expansion of electromobility by enabling engineers to develop more charging solutions based on a common protocol.
Source: Volvo Construction Equipment
“We want to contribute to a standardized, reliable and efficient electric ecosystem that makes it easy for our customers to go electric! Today, lacking a standard brand-agnostic charging interface for compact machines, our customers will need different chargers for different machine brands. By making our charging interface public, we hope that we will see more and more charging solution providers and other machine OEMs using one and the same charging protocol — moving us a step closer to an industry standard for the benefit of customers everywhere,” explained the company.
A 48 V power supply is engineered for the smallest range of compact construction machines. This applies to the ECR18 electric, EC18 electric and ECR25 electric compact excavators, the L20 electric and L25 electric compact wheel loaders and the DD25 electric asphalt compactor developed by Volvo Construction Equipment.
