IDTechEx Finds Electric Haul Trucks to Become a US$15 Billion Industry - Seite 2

The biggest chunk of the total cost of ownership savings comes from replacing diesel with much cheaper electricity. Haul trucks have the most intensive duty cycles of any vehicle in a mine, working 20-hour days on average and consuming massive amounts of diesel in the process. Any cost reductions will, therefore, compound greatly through the truck's 10-year lifetime. A single 150-tonne haul truck can save over US$5.5 million in energy costs alone. This is widely applicable across all vehicle weights, with heavier trucks providing even greater upside, highlighting the potential savings that can be generated when an entire fleet of haul trucks is electrified.

Regardless of the costs that can be saved, electric haul trucks will come at a premium. Haul truck batteries are large and expensive and will need multiple replacements within a 10-year window. The question remains: will energy savings be sufficient to overturn the premiums paid for batteries?

The large batteries needed for electric haul trucks have perhaps been the largest technological and financial bottlenecks inhibiting their adoption, but they are now sufficiently developed and competitively priced for wider use. These batteries regularly exceed 1 MWh, with the largest ones approaching 2 MWh. IDTechEx has collated a database of all existing EV haul truck models, showing that current vehicle runtimes remain under 6 hours on a single charge. For a 150-tonne haul truck to operate for this duration, it will require a battery pack of over 1700 kWh and cost over US$500 thousand.

Energy savings will comfortably exceed the added cost of a single battery. However, IDTechEx expects electric haul trucks will need an additional five battery replacements per vehicle on average, costing an extra US$2.6 million.

More cost factors also play into the total cost of ownership of electric haul trucks. On average, a 150-tonne truck will be able to save around US$340 thousand in maintenance costs in its lifetime. However, an electric driveline is needed for US$70 thousand, plus the labor of retrofitting which IDTechEx estimates at US$360 thousand. While these are relevant and substantial costs, they pale in comparison to the amounts spent on diesel or batteries and are not the key determinants in haul truck economics.