As fuel prices keep climbing, the business case becomes stronger for hybrid power on heavy equipment. But the payoff period for heavy-duty hybrids is still fuzzy, and equipment designers face the tough decision of which technology to pick.
Excavators consume a large amount of fuel when swinging back and forth between digging and dumping. This swinging motion alone gobbles up to 70% of the energy needed to operate an excavator, according to Ken Gray, global product manager for Caterpillar Inc.