Volvo L20 Electric impresses New Zealand landscape company

Intelligro, a family-owned company in Rolleston, near Christchurch, New Zealand, manufactures and sells a wide variety of landscape, garden, and civil supplies. They specialize in growing media, mulches, sands, and soil mixes for both residential and commercial customers primarily across the South Island. With 16 loaders on-site, Intelligro is no stranger to machinery and appreciates the importance of performance, reliability and comfort. As a team, they pride themselves on delivering top quality products and excellent service for their customers.

When one of their conventional wheel loaders was out of action, the company seized the opportunity to trial a zero-exhaust emission Volvo L20 Electric wheel loader. And the results have taken them by surprise.

Andrew ‘AJ’ Mahuika, Retail Crew Supervisor at Intelligro, explains: “At first, I was a little bit skeptical. I thought that being electric it wouldn’t have the same power or capabilities as our traditional wheel loaders. However, it’s proven to be exactly the same and it’s probably one of the most comfortable loaders I’ve driven. I think it exceeded everyone’s expectations in terms of its functionality. It’s very much been business as usual.”

Intelligro has been using the L20 Electric in its retail yard to load soft materials for its landscape commercial trade customers as well as the public.

Thanks to its near silent operation and zero-exhaust emissions, the use of the L20 Electric in Intelligro’s retail yard is not only better for its customers, but also for employees.

Growing in popularity

As well as impressing with its power and functionality, the L20 Electric is a hit with the operators. They appreciated the low vibration and the fact that settings could be adjusted for each unique driver, whether for ergonomic comfort or hydraulic speeds.

AJ continues: “It doesn’t drive any different to any of the other loaders we use. But being electric it is noticeably a lot quieter. It basically produces zero noise.”

When it comes to charging, AJ says that they were getting six hours of use out of the wheel loader, with charging done overnight so that the machine was ready to go again the next day.

The L20 Electric comes with a choice of 33KWh or 40kWh battery packs which is expected to provide up to six hours of active work per charge. Unlike diesel machines, electric machines have zero idling time, which means if you stop working, the machine stops working too, saving valuable battery life.

Sowing the seeds for success

The L20 Electric is one of five compact electric machine models from Volvo CE that are available in New Zealand. These include the EC18 Electric, ECR18 Electric and ECR25 Electric compact excavators and the L25 Electric wheel loader.

Bertrand Collette, Head of Market Area Oceania at Volvo CE, said: “The trial of the Volvo L20 Electric wheel loader at Intelligro is important to show the significant role our electric machines can play in the landscaping sector – an industry that is all about creating and enhancing beautiful environments from the ground up.

“Being zero-exhaust-emission and quiet, electric machines have the potential to open doors to new business opportunities, in low or zero emission zones, sensitive or enclosed environments. We hope that by sharing Intelligro’s experience, we can inspire others to see how electric solutions might fit in their organizations and help them achieve their sustainability goals.”

The L20 Electric was supplied by local dealer, TDX, who also provided initial training and ongoing support to the operators at Intelligro.