Breaking Big Rocks With a Small Electric Excavator? No Problem.

“In 1946, my father started our business,” says Regan Cox, who now serves as president. “He started crushing rocks to begin with, and now we're in road building, asphalt production, paving and grading.”

Company headquarters sit in Guelph, Ontario, but teams work in various pits and plants across the southeast part of the province.

From humble beginnings where their only crusher had to be overhauled nearly every night to be able to work again the next day, the company is now leading the way into the industry’s future with electric equipment.

“Being in the quarry business, one may not think that an electric excavator would be the tool you might find in our background,” says Regan. “But we've been able to implement a small, two-and-a-half-ton electric excavator to break up oversize on top of our crusher.”

Batteries Breaking Boulders? You Bet.

Cox Construction now owns two Volvo ECR25 Electric compact excavators, which sit atop large crushing setups to break down rocks that are too big to fit into the crusher. Despite some skepticism the first time that battery-electric machinery was suggested to them, the team is very happy with their purchases.

“The transition from the diesel machine that we had before to the electric has basically been seamless,” says Brandon Crumbie, a crusher foreman at Cox Construction. “I really like it because there's less warm-up time. You just hit the key and away you go. It'll do every job you could ever need.”

Cox and Crumbie both say the ECR25 Electric has the power they need while requiring a fraction of the maintenance performed on the diesel model that used to do the job.

“It doesn't have a motor on it, so we're not having to change engine oil. We're not having to change filters,” says Crumbie. “The only thing you have to worry about is the hydraulic system. You don't have to worry about getting fuel out to it.”

Their dealer partner, Ben Waldron at Nors Construction Equipment Canada, says an electric machine may cost more upfront but will offer a good ROI in the long run thanks to simpler maintenance and the ability to take on work that others cannot.

“He's saving money because he's not doing regular maintenance the way you would on a diesel piece of machinery,” says Waldron, who has been a sales manager in the area for eight years. “He's not turning a machine on and letting it idle for several hours during a shift. They aren't losing injectors. They're not having mechanical failures on the machine because of the intense vibrations from the crushing plant.”

Waldron says a lot of Canadian government contracts are starting to require that contractors show a path towards sustainability, and electric equipment helps them do that. He describes Regan as an early adopter who he knew would give electric equipment the consideration it deserves.

“He's a guy who looks for innovation and cost savings in every aspect of his business,” Waldron says. “The first time you bring electric up, it usually involves some laughter. But then, like Regan does, he went home and thought about it, and he called me about a week later and asked me a million questions.”

“Ben and Nors’ support to make sure that the machine could do the job is what helped us make our decision,” says Cox. “This relationship will definitely continue to prosper to both our benefits in the future.”

Charging Causes No Concerns

The Cox Construction team is running the ECR25 Electric excavator on top of a 600-volt crusher at a contracted site, so charging it from the generator that powers the full lineup is a minimal draw.

“Currently, charging is dependent on how much duty the excavator is doing,” says Cox. “Sometimes it's only operating twice within a 14-hour shift, sometimes it's 10 times. But charging has not been a problem — we can go up to two weeks’ time on a charge.”

“It's very easy to charge,” adds Crumbie. “You just get your charging cable and adapter, and you plug it in and hit the button on the dash.”

The Volvo electric excavator is fitted with a hydraulic hammer and additional guarding for safety, and the team says the constant vibration of the crusher affects it much less than it affected the previous diesel models because it has far fewer components.

This swap has allowed Cox Construction to use their diesel models on other projects, further optimizing the way they utilize equipment across the fleet.

Even Regan Cox’s 99-year-old father, Russell, who still works one day a week in the office, is impressed by the innovation.

“Electric is not for all contractors, but if it's something that's close together, it makes for a very unique way of power,” he says.

A Past, Present and Future With Volvo

Regan says his team has trusted Volvo equipment for decades and plans to continue leaning on the brand for the foreseeable future.

“Our first piece of Volvo equipment goes back to ’89, when we bought trucks — Volvo articulated dump trucks are the envy of the construction world,” he says. “We own four of them. We also have eight Volvo excavators that do a great job for us.”

Russell says a visit to Volvo factories back then helped tip the scales.

“We saw their loaders and their haulers — the casting plant and the engine plant. It was brand new at that time,” he says. “When I came back, we bought three Volvo trucks, an EC235 excavator and EC130 excavator, and that put us in the excavating business.”

So, as Volvo adds more and more electric models to its lineup, Cox Construction remains open to where the future could take them.

“With the evolution of battery life, we look forward to being able to use more electric vehicles in the future to meet our sustainability goals,” says Regan. “As a contractor, we look forward to dealing with Volvo in the future to see what they bring forward.”

And for operators who may still carry a bit of skepticism, Crumbie encourages an open mind.

“Electric is the way of the future, and this is a great little machine,” he says. “I think it's going to work out great.”