Dimaag Megawatt Mobile Charging System For Construction & Mining Industries

CleanTechnica is a staunch advocate for electrifying everything and making the electricity to make that possible from renewable sources like solar, wind, hydro, and such. The transportation sector is moving steadily toward electric cars, trucks, and trains, but there are other wheeled vehicles like excavators, dump trucks, and mining equipment that spend most of their life far from any paved roads. How do electric versions of those machines get their batteries recharged? Dimaag says it has the answer.

When diesel-powered heavy duty trucks and mining equipment need to be refueled, a tanker brings diesel fuel to the job site. But how do electric construction and mining machines get their batteries recharged when there is no electrical supply nearby? The answer may be the Dimaag Mobile Megawatt Charging System.

Dimaag: 295 kWh, No Waiting

The Dimaag, a 5000 kg (11,000 lb) battery storage unit on wheels, can bring up to 6 MW of charging power to any job site, whether above or below ground. It can travel at up to 22 mph (35 km/h), and while the company lists no acceleration times, it does say the four electric motors — one for each wheel — are rated at 208 kW (279 Hp) and 2180 Nm of continuous torque. That’s enough grunt to get the Dimagg up a 40% incline, which is pretty impressive for a 5.5 ton beast.

Komatsu manufactures heavy duty trucks and mining equipment, including battery-powered machinery. At the recent industrial trade show in Munich, Germany, it featured the Dimaag to reassure customers that if they purchased a Komatsu battery-powered vehicle, they wouldn’t need a five mile long extension cord to keep it powered up.

Taisuke Kusaba, chief technology officer for Komatsu, told the press in Germany, “We are delighted to collaborate with Dimaag to leverage the effectiveness of MWCS. Despite the challenges in developing the market for electric construction equipment, primarily due to installation costs and the need for adequate power supply infrastructure, we remain committed to accelerating our efforts toward market development through collaboration with companies such as Dimaag, in pursuit of our challenge goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.”

According to International Mining, the Dimaag is equipped with a 295 kWh battery and a high efficiency DC-DC converter and can discharge up to 6 MW of power at 1500 amps and 1000 volts max via an MCS charging outlet to keep heavy equipment machines charged up at job sites. Both the converter and the energy storage system are designed for durability and make use of an advanced thermal management system to optimize safety during high power charging operations. The modular DC-DC converter is scalable, which means it is capable of charging capacities from 1 MW to 6 MW. 4-wheel drive and 4-wheel steering enable it to navigate rough terrain and congested work sites. Remote steering via a joystick control is standard and autonomous operation is available as well.

Ian Wright & The Fulcrum Micro-turbine

Many years ago, Ian Wright was one of the founders of Tesla, before Elon Musk swooped in and bigfooted everyone. One of the issues Wright had with SuperMusk was he thought the company should focus on vehicles that had the highest exhaust emissions — trucks and buses, primarily. He founded Wrightspeed after he left the Tesla nest, which developed a nifty gas-powered micro-turbine range extender engine called Fulcrum that weighed just 250 pounds and could meet the strict California exhaust emissions standards without the need for a catalytic converter. The micro-turbine was capable of operating on a number of fuels, including propane, diesel, liquid natural gas, compressed natural gas, or even landfill recovered gas (sour gas). Like a true range extender, it was used solely to provide electricity to the battery packs in those vehicles.

The efficient combination translated into serious savings, with an estimated 4-year return on investment for customers compared to a conventional diesel-powered refuse or delivery truck. The Wrightspeed plug-in hybrid electric powertrain was such an innovative, impactful solution that the company was recognized by the World Economic Foundation as a 2016 Technology Pioneer. Wrightspeed’s powertrain solution delivered:

• Up to 67% reduction in fuel consumption
• Up to 63% reduction in emissions
• Up to $25,000 reduction in annual maintenance

The Fulcrum micro-turbine was as efficient as the range extender engine used in the Chevy Volt and the BMW i3, but what really set it apart was its extremely low maintenance profile. With only one moving part, two bearings, and no piston rings, maintenance was as easy as changing the air filter and fuel filter — extremely simple tasks compared to the maintenance required on a diesel engine in a refuse truck or delivery van.

Wrightspeed focused on powering the sorts of vehicles that stop and start constantly while at Tesla. Now he is the vice president of engineering at Dimaag. Recently he told the press, “Dimaag is excited to collaborate with Komatsu, introducing our advanced ESS and DC-DC architecture to revolutionize electrification in construction. Off-road vehicle electrification demands practical solutions that not only meet but exceed the performance of equivalent large diesel engine vehicles, while also providing substantial total cost of ownership savings.”

Focus On Off-Road Heavy Duty Vehicles

True to Ian Wright’s original ambitions to address carbon emissions from heavy vehicles, Dimaag, which was founded in 2018, is also partnering with Hitachi to created zero emissions construction equipment that uses Dimaag technology. At CES 2024, Ian Wright said, “The off-road EV solutions have considerably different requirements than the on-road EV solutions. It is important to safely provide full power for a full day of use for these off-road vehicles. The cost of these solutions has to be comparable to the current diesel-based solutions in order for EV transformation goals to become a reality. With Dimaag’s Electric No Compromise  Off Road Ecosytem (ENCORE) it possible to achieve all these requirements.”

ENCORE is a system for powering smaller construction equipment with its proprietary battery modules that feature advanced thermal management technology. The modules can be recharged in as little as 20 minutes and can power a number of off-road electric equipment such as zero turn mowers, compact excavators, utility vehicles, and tractors. Each battery-operated piece of equipment can perform the job of an equivalent diesel-powered machine. Just two battery modules can provide full power for each of those vehicles.

What If?

We can only speculate about what might have happened if Wright and the other co-founders of Tesla has stayed on and pursued their original vision without the intervention of Elon Musk. Perhaps the heavy vehicle market would have more battery-powered vehicles today and there would be fewer electric cars on the road. Because diesel trucks create so much pollution, the overall reduction in carbon emissions might have been about the same as it is today.

We can’t help but wonder how widespread adoption of the Fulcrum micro-turbine might have altered how quickly the diesel engine was replaced as the primary power source for heavy duty vehicles. Perhaps California could have adopted it to reduce emissions from those trucks without mandating battery-only heavy duty trucks — a provision that has ignited a firestorm of criticism from the trucking industry. In fact, that mandate is one of the primary factors behind the campaign to strip California of its emissions waiver from the EPA.

The gates of history turn on tiny hinges, my high school history teacher liked to say. It’s interesting to speculate how the world of transportation might be different today if Ian Wright had remained involved with Tesla.