Yanmar opens its heart to a carbon-neutral future

Yanmar is ready to enter a carbon-neutral future. With a global launch of our first e-powertrain solutions at bauma 2022 and a follow-up at Eima, we sparked off our electrification strategy for construction equipment and off-road vehicles. The bottom line of our approach: change is inevitable; however, OEMs will not stand alone to make this happen. They find a reliable, go-to partner in Yanmar to successfully transform the heart of their construction machinery – the engine – into state-of-the-art electric powertrains.

At a well-attended opening event, the pumping heartbeat of the engine as the core of most industrial equipment introduced the urgent environmental message we face today: you can’t replace the earth, but you can replace your powertrains.

The message is clear, but at the same time, it is a huge challenge for manufacturers of construction equipment. At a well-attended press conference, three key representatives of Yanmar showed how we can team up with OEMs to follow their hearts and go electric with Yanmar.

Partnership is crucial

Yanmar board member, Ms Shiori Nagata, highlighted how Yanmar’s 110-year history focuses now more than ever on creating a sustainable future, underlining its core values of durability, reliability, quality and robustness. Forging even stronger partnerships and collaborations with all of our stakeholders in the industry – customers, dealers and OEMs –is crucial during this period of power evolution.

Togetherness and teamwork

According to Carlo Giudici, Yanmar Europe Sales Director EMEA, the new-energy technology and product strategy cannot be other than based on teamwork and cooperation with our partners with Yanmar as the one-stop, all-in-one systems integrator of e-powertrains for off-road equipment. “Togetherness is at the heart of how we want to work with our OEM partners. Working alongside Yanmar, OEMs can confidently outsource all electrification-related power issues to us and focus on their core business and challenges. This way, we want to support our OEM partners and customers to achieve their own environmental and performance goals.”

Understanding high-mix, low-volume manufacturing

An important milestone in Yanmar’s electrification strategy is our acquisition of battery-technology company ELEO, a fast-growing developer and manufacturer of high-performance modular battery systems.

Bas Verkaik, a co-founder of ELEO, explained why the electrification of industrial vehicles is so much different from what is happening in the automotive industry. “Manufacturers of off-road machines face different challenges. While car manufacturers can build a dedicated battery system for hundreds of the same or similar vehicles, OEMs of off-road equipment need a thousand battery systems for a thousand different machines. And this while the performance and endurance requirements are even more stringent.” At bauma, ELEO introduced the newest-generation product developed specifically for these OEMs with high mix, low-volume applications.

Buzzing with energy

Both bauma and Eima were buzzing with energy, as we all are at Yanmar. In our hearts, we all know that we cannot do without electrification. To ensure a sustainable future, Yanmar introduces its state-of-the-art e-powertrain solutions. Together we will transform the heart of construction machines into electric powertrains the likes of which no one has ever experienced before. As a partner in electrification, we’re ready to help OEMs and customers in the construction industry take the next step to a sustainable future. We are convinced that now is the time to act. For you cannot replace the earth, but you can replace your powertrains.

Change is inevitable. Follow your heart, go electric with Yanmar.