Battery technology company ZQuip has developed a modular battery system that can eliminate the fear of equipment runtime, and power machines weighing 5 to 50 tons.
The company’s system can convert diesel construction equipment to zero-emission electric power by using modular batteries that can be swapped out when depleted with charged batteries. They can also charge each other. It’s a system that appears to have solved the problem of charging and running battery-powered equipment.
On this episode of The Dirt, we hear from ZQuip’s Managing Director Chris Lafleur and Engineering Manager Rob Bauer to find out how the modular system works and why it could be the answer to creating a productive and cost-effective zero-emission jobsite and fleet.
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In This Episode:
00:00 - ZQuip Modular Electric Construction Equipment
00:40 - What is ZQuip?
03:30 - What are the Advantages of Having a Modular System?
07:08 - How Modularity Solves Many Electrification Problems
09:08 - 3 Ways to Power a ZQuip Machine
13:30 - ZQuip Telematics
14:48 - Electric Equipment Cost Savings
16:16 - How to Get Power to Your Construction Site
20:05 - Final Thoughts

Video Transcript:
Bryan Furnace:
Today we're here for yet another electric equipment talk, but this one's a little different. We're getting more into modularity when it comes to these electric machines, which means it's starting to become a little more feasible on certain job sites to utilize this technology because your machine doesn't go down the second you run out of juice. Here to talk with us today are the guys from ZQuip and they're going to give us a heads-up of what technologies are being developed behind the scenes. So my first question is for the audience, we've all heard about electric equipment and other people's take, but you guys are doing something that's pretty unique. Can you give us just a quick overview of what ZQuip is working on?
Chris Lafleur:
Sure. So ZQuip is a system that creates the most productive and efficient zero emission job sites out there. We've been really working toward the goal of making electrification and zero emissions actually work for people. It's got to be productive, it's got to make sense from a cost perspective. And so at Moog, we've done a lot of work with OEMs. We've done a lot of work in the construction space for the last 5 to 10 years, and our group has just constantly been on the lookout for what are the reasons people don't want to go zero emission, what are the impediments to adoption and how can we make something that really works better for everybody, that it's not a, "Oh God, we have to do this," it's something that you feel good about and it's something that you can actually get work done and not be forced to do.
So ZQuip, it's all about finding the right way to make an entire site and a fleet of machines and everything that you have going on in the site work well from a zero emission standpoint. And a lot of that comes down to the core modularity, interchangeability and just the functioning of everything together. So to give you an example of how the system works, at the machine level, it is the simple conversion of diesel machines from diesel to electric using interchangeable battery modules. So we can convert anything from 5 to 50 tons so that they each use the same batteries between all machines of makes, models, sizes. You can think of it as having your Milwaukee and your DeWalt and your Makita's all using the exact same batteries on the site so that you never have to worry about what's on there.
Aside from the machine level, then we also provide a layer of software and management on top of that so that you don't have to worry about the range anxiety, you don't have to worry about the con ops of making this all function properly. The biggest problem out there right now with the industry is that you can't just take an electric or a zero emission machine and plop it down into a diesel site. There's a lot that goes into it and a lot of overhead for how do you manage that properly, how do you fit it into your system and make it so that you can actually be productive with it. And so that's our point of view on this, is it's not that this stuff can't be productive, it's that the current systems are just inadequate to make it work. So ours is made to really be easy for that so that when you go zero emission in some way, we can make it so that you actually get productive, cost-effective, efficient work done.
Bryan Furnace:
So one of the things that's really intriguing to me and I think is going to help with one of the huge hurdles that you face when you get that knee-jerk reaction of electric equipment is the modularity...