Hidromek HICON 7W is the world’s first hundred percent electrical excavator; Hidromek produced this machine for the first time. Mehmet Bozkurt the chairman of Hidromek talked about the machine:
‘’The machine is produced with local rubber wheels that are weighed 7 tons. It is battery-powered and this is the most important quality; fully loaded li-ion batteries in the engines can make the machine work for 8 hours, the charging time is 1.5 hour. We aim at 85-90 percent of indigenousness in the machine production; we use local batteries, locally produce some parts and units in the machine. Electronic software of the machine is also local.
We made previous studies for the mechanical parts and electrification is operated by TUBITAK support. We will complete the machine by the end of 2021. The machine is charged within 1.5 hour by boost charger and 3 hours by normal charger.’’
Bozkurt also gave information about the retail of the machine, he said:
‘’ 1-1.5 year of period is necessary for the technical operations before the retail of the machine; investments for the machine production will be made. We will make the machine functional by the end of 2021. Our rubber machine will also start service in the assembly line.’’
Bozkurt mentioned that 140 thousand square meters of production facility will be constructed in Sincan Organized Industry Zone. 70 tons of machines will also be produced along with the 7 tons of excavator. Bozkurt stated that they are planning to use hybrid technology for the big machines.
‘’The demand for electric excavator is high.’’
Bozkurt emphasized that people demanded the machine after president Erdogan introduced it and he said:
‘’Customers both from Turkey and abroad are already demanding the excavator. They are curious about the machine, how it works and how much it works. We tell them we need time. Charge substructure for electrical devices should be constructed in Turkey; our services should be ready for maintenance, commercial terms should be arranged and that is why we need time. We think that if the machine was ready today, the demand would be high and fast; yet, we do not get pre-orders.’’
Erdogan stated ‘’I am down for the marketing of the machine.’’ and Bozkurt talked about these words of Erdogan:
‘’ This is a nice approach for our industry; the community is the biggest customer for our products. Hopefully, we will be successful both in Turkey and abroad if we have the community support. We are glad for the support of our president.’’
Bozkurt mentioned that Hidromek firm started new operations regarding engineering vehicles and he said:
‘’We make operations regarding autonomic, semi-autonomic, electrical and hybrid machines; we will put these on the market in the next few years.’’
Bozkurt mentioned that Hidromek is also powerful in designing. Hidromek has 20 international awards and 2 grand prizes for the excavator machine.
‘’ We may have purchasing opportunities.’’
Bozkurt emphasized that average annual export value of Hidromek is 150 million dollars and the company is active in 100 countries. He said:
‘’ Hidromek operates at six continents and our 50 thousand engineering machines work for global excavations. We would like to be successful in near countries rather than new market places. We have operations and strategies to be one of the three biggest firms at Europe and Russia; we work hard on that goal and we make investments, plans for it. We may have purchasing opportunities; our related operations are still continued. We purchased grader part of the Mitsubishi in abroad and this purchase provided us an investment opportunity in Thailand. We are one the biggest Turkish investors in Thailand. New products may be released in the future; we follow firms with powerful distribution networks at Europe.’’
source: AA / translated by Bazaar Team