{"id":48340,"date":"2023-04-26T18:48:12","date_gmt":"2023-04-26T22:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=48340"},"modified":"2023-04-26T18:48:12","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T22:48:12","slug":"electric-excavator-swiss-alps-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=48340","title":{"rendered":"This electric excavator was airlifted to rebuild James Bond’s cable car in the Swiss Alps [video]"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An electric compact excavator was airlifted to a summit in the Swiss Alps to help rebuild one of the world\u2019s most iconic cable car routes \u2013 because diesel machines aren\u2019t up to the job.<\/p>\n

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Volvo Construction Equipment\u2019s ECR25 Electric compact excavator is being used on a 100 million Swiss Franc\u00a0project<\/a>\u00a0to build a new cableway from the village of Stechelberg, at the mountain\u2019s base, to the 2,970-meter (9,744-foot) Schilthorn summit in Switzerland\u2019s Bernese Alps.<\/p>\n

The Schilthorn cableway opened in 1967, making the summit accessible to the general public. Its fame grew following the 1969 James Bond film, On Her Majesty\u2019s Secret Service<\/em>, and it was the world\u2019s longest and steepest aerial cableway for decades.<\/p>\n

Diesel engines suffer from reduced efficiency, increased emissions, and major reliability issues at high altitudes, so an electric compact excavator was the obvious choice for this project.<\/p>\n

Melchior Burlon, site manager at Ghelma AG Baubetriebe, the construction firm that\u2019s carrying out the work, said<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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There are two main problems up on the mountains.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, we don\u2019t have much space here, and on the other hand we often encounter problems with diesel engines operating at altitude owing to the thin air and the cold.<\/p>\n

Volvo CE is the only supplier that offers something of this magnitude.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, there were only excavators up to two tons and we wanted the most powerful machine for the job \u2013 and something that we could still transport via helicopter if necessary.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The ECR25 Electric had to be towed up by a snow groomer, piece by piece, to the station at Birg, at 2,600 meters (8,530 feet). It was then airlifted via helicopter to the Schilthorn summit (if you look closely, you can see it dangling beneath the red helicopter in the photo below):<\/p>\n

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The ECR25 Electric is now shifting and loading debris on the Schilthorn, and transporting blasted material to the installation site.<\/p>\n

The excavator is charged with the Schilthorn cable car\u2019s power supply, which is 100% powered by clean hydropower generated in the Lauterbrunnen Valley, and there\u2019s also a fast charger.<\/p>\n

You can watch the airlift and the ECR25 Electric working at the Schilthorn summit in the video here:<\/p>\n

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