Komatsu Ltd. is testing the North American equipment market with its new PC200LC-8 Hybrid Excavator, a lean, green digging machine that has sold more than 700 times in Asia since production began 19 months ago.

The 22-ton excavator, the first hybrid of its kind in the U.S., was put to work on March 11 at the Port of Los Angeles. “We are targeting the excavator to customers who are after a green image and who have a green initiative as part of their corporate principals,” says Armando Najera, excavator product manager for Rolling Meadows, Ill.-based Komatsu America Corp. “This is a machine that is going to help meet the emissions goals of several regions in the U.S.”