Lightning fast charger: Fortescue 6 MW DCFC for electric heavy equipment

Global mining and metals company Fortescue is driving the technology behind massive, all electric heavy equipment solutions with an all-new 6 MW DC fast charger that can charge this massive haul truck’s 1,900 kWh battery in less than thirty minutes. (!)

Jointly developed by Fortescue and heavy equipment giants Liebherr, the 6 MW (6000 kW) DC fast charger is twice as fast as the 3 MW prototype shown last year during CES, but was just a small part of the massive $4 billion electric equipment deal the two companies signed at MINEexpo this past week. That money will eventually pay for a total of 475 zero emission Liebherr machines, with a breakdown of 360 autonomous battery-electric trucks, 55 electric excavators, and 60 battery-powered loaders.

The big news, though, has to be that game-changing 6MW charger.

“Fortescue has developed the stationary fast charging solution to support the autonomous battery-electric truck,” the company said this week. “Equipped with robotic connection options, the charger can provide up to 6 MW of power and charge the current battery-electric T 264 [a 240 ton rigid haul truck we covered back in July] in 30 minutes.”

That’s right, kids. This deal is so big that news of the world’s fastest commercially available DC fast charger is delivered almost as an afterthought.

“We are proud to have facilitated the single largest equipment deal in the entire 75-year history of the Liebherr Group. Especially as the expansion of our collaboration with Fortescue is an important step forward in our shared goal to decarbonize mining activities worldwide,” says Dr Jörg Lukowski, executive vice president, sales and marketing, Liebherr-Mining Equipment SAS. “The technology developed as part of this record-breaking deal will not only support our customers along their decarbonization journeys but also help us honor our commitment to offer completely fossil fuel free hauling, loading and dozing solutions by the end of the decade. In fact, in the coming years, Liebherr and Fortescue Zero will be able to offer more customers within the industry a proven, large scale zero emission mining ecosystem.”

The rollout of these HDEVs is part of Fortescue’s 2030 Real Zero target, which aims to eliminate harmful carbon emissions from its Australian iron ore operations by 2030.

“The world needs Real Zero now – it simply cannot afford to wait,” says Dr. Andrew Forrest, executive chairman, Fortescue. “The green solutions we need are here today, and Fortescue Zero is supplying them and rolling them out across our massive mining operations.”

Amen to that.