Deutz and Maeda unveil all-electric crawler crane

The first Maeda crane to be equipped with an electric drive from Deutz has made its debut and will help to make building sites more environmentally friendly. At the Deutz Days trade event, drive systems specialist Deutz and Japanese crane manufacturer Maeda unveiled the CC 1485 crawler crane, which is fitted with a 360-volt drive powered by a lithium-ion battery. With an output of 40 kW, this zero-emission construction-site vehicle is very powerful. Deutz is a pioneer of carbon-neutral drive systems for off-highway applications and is steadily expanding its range of alternative drives for its customers. 

“Environmentally friendly construction sites are now a reality, not a distant dream. We are delighted to be here with Maeda today to present the prototypes for an electric construction-site vehicle. The CC 1485 is already fully functional. Our electric drive is quiet, efficient and emission free, even when used on a building site,” says Markus Müller, Chief Technology Officer of Deutz AG. 

Tomiaki Habasaki, Executive General Manager – Industrial Machinery Headquarters: “Maeda has already been in the electrified vehicle market with its small ‘spider-crane’ in Europe. We experience a strong pick-up in demand from our customers for environmentally friendly products. In order to electrify our crawler crane we decided on a joint development with Deutz for its proven technology and experience in electrified drive trains for off-highway equipment.” 

With a load capacity of up to 6 tonnes the CC 1485 mini crawler crane is the powerhouse of the Maeda crane series. Deutz and Maeda will also showcase the vehicle at the Bauma 2022 trade fair, enabling it to be seen by more people in the industry. Full production of the Deutz electric drive is expected to begin in 2023. 

Deutz is forging ahead with its sustainability strategy and will be providing even greater transparency in this regard going forward. On November 17, it announced that it would introduce the reporting segments Classic and Green with effect from January 1, 2022. The Company is accelerating the transition to sustainable drive systems with its growth strategy. Activities in the Green segment will comprise not only electric drives and batteries but also engines powered by hydrogen. Deutz intends to increase the share of its total revenue attributable to this segment to more than 50 percent by 2031.