By Greg Poggiali

Copyright jalopnik

There’s no getting around it: electric construction equipment is expensive with a capital “E.” The initial purchase price can carry a 25-40% premium. To help bridge that gap, governments are throwing cash at the problem. Incentives like a $40,000 federal tax credit for commercial clean vehicles or California’s CORE program. That’s great for construction companies but odd that the consumer facing EV tax credits are evaporating. But fixating on the sticker price is missing a key point — the total cost of ownership is the real win.

First, electricity is cheaper and more stable than diesel in most places. Second, maintenance becomes a lighter bill to stomach with no engine oil, fuel filters, or exhaust systems to deal with. This doesn’t just save money; it can also mean more uptime. To point out the obvious however, this is still largely unproven machinery, and hidden repair costs are still possible.

Finally, how do you charge a massive machine on a chaotic job site? For sites with grid access, you use a common 240-volt outlet for a full AC charge overnight. During the day, you hit an on-site DC fast charger during the lunch break, which can take the battery from 20% to 80% in about an hour. For remote jobs, Volvo has the PU500. Think of it as Golliath’s phone charger. It’s a massive, 16,755-pound energy system on a skid that can be hauled from site to site. The idea is to charge at home base, truck it to the location, and use as the primary power source for the whole site. While many are still struggling to build out a reliable EV charging network for cars, Volvo is just bringing their own.

Is it the future? We don’t know, but it sounds compelling. It’s being driven not just by green ideals, but by a strong business case. If Volvo can make quiet, zero-emission bulldozers pencil out on the balance sheet, then the diesel roar we’ve all grown used to might be living on borrowed time.