Laggards beware: no transportation industry is safe from electrification. It’s going to drag you, kicking and screaming if necessary, into the future. That’s true whether we’re talking about planes, trains or automobiles, or even cement mixers. And not only are electric cement mixers now a thing, but you can order one straight from China. Learn all about it in this week’s edition of the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week.
This isn’t just any ol’ cement mixer. This is an electric cement mixer.
That means instead of idling on your street while spewing diesel fumes and carcinogens into the air, the only crap this thing will leave behind are bits of dried concrete on the road surface.
The 12,800 kg (28,000 lb) truck is a beast powered by a 250 kW electric motor with a peak output of 360 kW (483 hp).
Unlike electric sport cars that use that much power to get going fast, this hunk of steel and rock uses it to lumber along under all of that weight.
A 9-speed automatic gearbox helps pull every last bit of torque out of that electric motor, and a massive 350 kWh LiFePO4 battery keeps you rolling until the last of the cement is… well, wherever it’s supposed to be.
The truck also supports DC fast charging, which means you could use it for road trips too!
The tumbler in back holds up to 12 cubic meters of wet cement (that’s 3,170 gallons for the Americans in the room), which should certainly be enough to redo your driveway. Though at a pricey US $98,000, I’m not sure it makes fiscal sense to invest in your own electric cement mixer for around-the-house jobs.
But just because it doesn’t make sense doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be tempted to pick up your cement spinner!
Now you might be asking yourself “what would I need an electric cement mixer for?”, which is a fair question.
But I’d counter by suggesting that you should instead think of all the new things you could do with it!
Tired of those youths flying down your residential street in their tricked out hot rods? Lay down a few strategically placed good ol’ fashioned speed bumps.
Your local road authority takes too long to patch those pot holes? Drop in your own cement!
The neighbor’s teenager keeps backing into your mailbox? Look who’s got a new wall around his mailbox!
Having your own cement mixer seems to solve more problems than it creates. And since it’s electric, you don’t even have to feel bad about all those harmful emissions. Maybe you can even get $7,500 back on your taxes. I don’t know how those federal tax credits work for EVs ordered online from China, but when there’s a will, there’s a way!
The only sticky issue I can foresee is parking. The HOA might frown upon you keeping a giant cement mixer in your driveway. But perhaps when the HOA president suddenly has a concrete log across his own driveway then he’ll have bigger problems to deal with!
Now I’m not saying you should become a cement-mixing vigilante here. But I am saying in any argument that pits cement mixer against another side without a cement mixer, I know who I’d bet on.