Excavator
294 models 
Backhoe Loader
51 models 
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68 models 
Concrete Mixer
79 models 
Wheel Loader
54 models 
Compactor / Roller
45 models 
Motor Grader
42 models 
Concrete Pump
66 models 
Skid Steer Loader
11 models 
An electric machine’s spec sheet is the maker’s list of what the motor, the battery and the charger are rated to do, and five of its lines decide whether the machine finishes your shift: battery capacity in kWh, motor power in kW, torque in Nm, charging time, and the battery warranty. Every one of those five can be written in a way that flatters the machine, and two short divisions you can do on a phone will tell you more than the brochure does.
The excavator is where this matters most, because that is where the demand is. So the worked examples below come off the spec tables of the electric excavators listed on DesiMachines, with electric concrete pumps used where they make a point better. The general lines on an excavator sheet, operating weight, bucket capacity, digging depth and reach, work the same on an electric machine as on a diesel one, and are covered in how to read an excavator spec sheet. This page is about the lines a diesel machine does not have.
What is actually on an electric machine’s spec sheet, and what is missing?
Less than you would expect. Across the 26 electric machines listed on DesiMachines, 14 excavators and 12 concrete pumps whose sheet says the drive is electric, the motor power is published almost everywhere and the battery is published almost nowhere.
| Line on the sheet | Unit it is written in | How many of the 26 publish it | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rated motor power | kW, usually with HP beside it | 25 of 26 | each machine’s own spec table, read 4 November 2026 |
| Maximum torque | Nm, and it should carry an rpm | 4, all of them excavators; the 12 concrete pumps have no torque row at all | each machine’s own spec table, read 4 November 2026 |
| Battery capacity | kWh | 1, and it is written into the machine’s description rather than its spec table | LiuGong 9027FE EV listing, read 4 November 2026 |
| A battery entry of any kind | Ah and V, or a chemistry name such as LFP | 3, and not one of the three is the size of the pack that moves the boom | each machine’s own spec table, read 4 November 2026 |
| Charging time | minutes or hours, to a stated percentage | 0 of 26 | each machine’s own spec table, read 4 November 2026 |
| Battery warranty | years or operating hours, whichever ends first | 0 of 26; the warranty question on these listings is answered for the machine, not for the battery | each machine’s listing, read 4 November 2026 |
Two habits follow from that table. Read the written description as well as the spec table, because the one kWh figure in the whole set is sitting in a description. And treat the three blank lines as questions for the dealer rather than as information the machine does not need. Why the kWh field is usually empty is covered separately.
What those lines describe physically, the pack, the charger, the inverter, the motor and the pump drive, is set out in how electric construction machines work.
There is also a sheet with nothing on it. The Volvo EC500 Electric, a 50-tonne class machine, carries no spec table of its own in the listing. A missing table is not a missing machine, and the figures exist with the dealer. It does mean you cannot compare that machine on paper until you ask.
What does the motor kW line mean, and is it peak or continuous?
Motor power is the rate at which the motor can turn electricity into work, written in kilowatts (kW). One kilowatt is 1.34 HP, so a 150 kW motor is a 201 HP motor, and most of these sheets print both. The number answers how hard the machine can pull at any one moment. It says nothing at all about how long it can keep going.
The trap is that a motor has two power figures and a sheet rarely says which one it is printing.
- Continuous power is what the motor will hold all day without overheating. This is the figure worth comparing.
- Peak power is a short burst, often for 30 or 60 seconds, usually a good deal higher. It flatters the machine.
There is a tell. A continuous rating is almost always printed with a speed beside it, because a motor’s continuous output is defined at a stated rpm. The SANY SY215EP sheet reads 201 HP (150 kW) at 1,800 rpm, and the SANY SY375EP reads 269 HP (200 kW) at 1,650 rpm. The LiuGong 926FE EV prints 201 HP (150 kW) with no speed. Where the speed is missing, ask whether the figure is the continuous one, and get the answer in writing before it goes into a tender calculation.
One more thing the motor line tells you, if you read the Type row next to it. A motor described as IPMSM or as a permanent-magnet motor runs at whatever speed the controller gives it, which is what a battery machine needs. A motor described as a squirrel-cage or asynchronous induction motor sitting at 1,483 or 1,491 rpm is running off 50 Hz mains current, which means a cable, not a pack. The Liebherr R 992 E and the BEML BE1000E-1 are both in that second group.
Why can a smaller machine show a bigger torque figure?
Torque is twisting force, written in newton metres (Nm). It is what the motor delivers to the pumps, and it is the reason an electric machine feels willing from the moment the operator touches the lever. It is not digging force, which is measured at the bucket in kN and is a different row on the same sheet.
Power, torque and speed are tied together, so any torque figure can be checked against the power figure printed above it. The sum is torque in Nm equals 9,550 multiplied by power in kW, divided by rpm. Run it on our own sheets and the figures sort themselves into two kinds.
| Machine | Rated motor power on the sheet | Torque on the sheet | Torque that power implies at that speed | What the comparison says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SANY SY375EP | 269 HP (200 kW) at 1,650 rpm | 1,140 Nm at 1,650 rpm | 1,158 Nm | within 2%, so the sheet is quoting torque at the rated point |
| Liebherr R 992 E | 544 HP (400 kW) at 1,491 rpm | 2,568 Nm, no speed given | 2,562 Nm | within 1%, so again the rated point, and the missing rpm is 1,491 |
| SANY SY215EP | 201 HP (150 kW) at 1,800 rpm | 1,500 Nm at 1,650 rpm | 868 Nm at 1,650 rpm | 1.7 times the rated-point figure, so this is a short peak, not an all-day number |
| BEML BE1000E-1 | 536 HP (400 kW) at 1,483 rpm | not stated | 2,576 Nm | a blank torque row you can fill in yourself |
That is the whole lesson of the torque line in one table. The 21.5-tonne class SY215EP publishes a bigger torque number than the 37.5-tonne class SY375EP above it, and the smaller machine is not stronger. One sheet is printing a peak and the other is printing a continuous rating, and only the arithmetic shows you which. When you compare two machines, compare the figures of the same kind.
Figure 1: the five electric lines on a spec block, and what to ask of each
B Maximum torque ………. 1,500 Nm at 1,650 rpm
C Battery capacity …….. __ kWh (nominal / usable?)
D Charging time ……….. __ minutes, __% to __%, on a __ kW charger
E Battery warranty …….. __ years or __ hours, __% capacity retained
- A Is this continuous or peak, and at what rpm? A rating with no speed beside it is unfinished.
- B Check it against A with 9,550 x kW / rpm. A figure far above the answer is a peak.
- C Nominal or usable? Usable is the number that does the work, and it is the smaller one.
- D How many minutes, between which two percentages, on a charger of what rating?
- E Years, hours and the capacity floor, and which of the three ends the cover first.
Lines A and B are filled in above from the SANY SY215EP sheet. The other three are blank on all 26 machines, which is the point of the figure.
What does battery kWh mean, and is the figure usable or nominal?
Battery capacity is energy, written in kilowatt-hours (kWh). One kWh is one unit of electricity, the same unit your meter counts. A 100 kWh pack holds enough energy to run a 100 kW motor flat out for one hour, or a 50 kW load for two.
Three things are worth knowing before you read a kWh figure.
Nominal and usable are different numbers. A battery management system keeps a reserve at the top and the bottom of the pack, because charging to a true 100% or draining to a true zero shortens its life. So a pack sold as 100 kWh may hand over 90 kWh of work. Ask for both figures. Where a maker publishes only one, assume it is the nominal one.
Not every line that says “battery” is the pack. The Liebherr machines above list a battery of two 180 Ah units at 12 V. That is the control and starting battery, and it holds a little over 4 kWh, which would not move the boom of a 90-tonne machine for a minute. A traction pack is written in kWh and a control battery in Ah and volts. What to confirm about the pack before you buy goes through the rest of it.
Chemistry is a clue to life, not to size. The LiuGong 922FE Battery sheet gives the battery as LFP, which is lithium iron phosphate. LFP is the chemistry most of this equipment uses because it tolerates heat and many charge cycles, both of which matter on an Indian site. It tells you nothing about how big the pack is.
How long will one charge last? The division to do on the spot
Divide the usable kWh by the kW the machine actually draws, and you have the hours. The catch is the second number, because a machine almost never draws its rated power. The share it does draw across a working hour is the load factor, written as a decimal, and 0.3 to 0.5 covers most excavator work.
Our own catalogue gives one machine where both numbers are published. The LiuGong 9027FE EV, a 2.75-tonne mini excavator, has a 20.6 kWh LFP pack and a 16.5 kW motor.
- Flat out, 20.6 divided by 16.5 is about an hour and a quarter. No mini excavator works like that.
- At a load factor of 0.5, the draw is 8.25 kW and the pack lasts about two and a half hours.
- At 0.3, the draw is 4.95 kW and it lasts a little over four hours.
So that machine is built for part of a shift and a charge in the break, which suits the indoor and landscaping work it is sold for. The load factor is doing almost all the work in that sum, and it is the figure nobody can give you from a brochure. Our method for pinning it down, and for turning it into a cost, is in the ownership-cost method.
The same sum run backwards is more useful when the kWh is blank, which is most of the time. Multiply the rated motor power by eight hours and by a load factor of 0.5, and you have roughly the energy a full shift needs. If the pack the dealer quotes is well under that, you are being offered a part-shift machine.
| Machine | Rated motor power | Energy an 8-hour shift needs at 0.5 |
|---|---|---|
| LiuGong 9027FE EV | 21.1 HP (16.5 kW) | about 66 kWh, against a 20.6 kWh pack |
| LiuGong 908FE EV | 63 HP (47 kW) | about 188 kWh |
| LiuGong 922FE Battery | 140 HP (105 kW) | about 420 kWh |
| LiuGong 926FE EV | 201 HP (150 kW) | about 600 kWh |
| SANY SY375EP | 269 HP (200 kW) | about 800 kWh |
| LiuGong 939FE EV | 325 HP (250 kW) | about 1,000 kWh |
Those numbers climb fast, and they explain a machine like the LiuGong 922FE Cable. It is the same excavator as the 922FE Battery with the pack taken out and a cable put in, because carrying four hundred units of energy around a quarry is harder than running a cable to it. You can see the full electric line-up on the electric excavator range and the diesel machines they sit beside under excavators.
What does “charging time” on a spec sheet actually mean?
On its own, very little. A charging time is only a fact once three other things are attached to it: the percentage range it covers, the rating of the charger it was measured on, and whether that charger is AC or DC.
A published figure shows how much is usually left out. SANY India’s own page for its SM4256T0BEV electric terminal tractor, a port machine we do not list, prints a traction battery of 282 kWh, a 280 kW motor, 2,800 Nm of torque and a charging time of 60 minutes, read on 4 November 2026. That is a fuller block than anything on our own electric listings, and it still leaves the two questions open. An hour from what to what, and on what charger? Put 282 kWh into an hour and the charger has to be in the region of 280 kW, which is our arithmetic and not SANY’s claim. A site with a 100 kW charger is looking at nearer three hours for the same pack.
So read a charging time as a sum rather than a promise. Usable kWh divided by charger kW gives the hours to fill from empty, before the slowdown that every pack goes through near the top. Site power, charger types and planning a charge around a shift are covered in charging an electric excavator on site. The word to look for on the sheet is the one SANY uses: traction. A traction battery is the one that works.
What should the battery warranty line say?
A battery warranty is the one spec on an electric machine that is written like an insurance policy, and it needs three numbers, not one. Years. Operating hours. And the capacity floor, which is the share of its original capacity the pack must still hold, commonly 70 or 80%, for the cover to apply. Whichever of the three runs out first ends it.
None of the 26 listings carries a battery warranty line, and the warranty question on them is answered for the machine rather than for the pack. On an electric machine that is the wrong way round, because the pack is the expensive part. Where a maker quotes a battery warranty in an interview or a press release, treat it as the maker’s own claim until you have it in the order papers with the maker named on it. What to ask for, and in what order, is set out in the buying checklist.
What each number tells you, and what it cannot
| Line | What it tells you | What it cannot tell you |
|---|---|---|
| Motor power, kW | how hard the machine can work at one moment, and its class against a diesel machine | how long it can hold that, unless the rpm and the word continuous are there |
| Torque, Nm | the pulling feel at the pumps, and whether the sheet is quoting a peak | digging force at the bucket, which is a separate row in kN |
| Battery, kWh | the energy on board, so the hours once you have a load factor | the usable share, unless both figures are given |
| Charging time | nothing by itself | the hours on your site, until the percentage range and the charger rating are named |
| Battery warranty | who pays if the pack fades | anything at all, until years, hours and the capacity floor are all written down |
How to run these checks on the next sheet you are handed
Four minutes with a phone calculator gets you most of the way. Check the motor line for an rpm and the word continuous. Run 9,550 x kW / rpm against the torque figure and see whether it lands near or far. Ask for nominal and usable kWh, and multiply the rated kW by eight and by 0.5 to see whether the pack is a shift-sized pack. Ask what percentage the charging time covers and on which charger. Then ask for the battery warranty in years, hours and capacity retained.
Where the figures land differently from a diesel machine in the same class is a separate question, and electric against diesel on duty cycle, noise and upkeep takes it on, with the running-cost arithmetic in our electric and diesel excavator running cost comparison and the current state of the machines themselves in the most advanced electric excavators. The rest of this pillar sits under the electric machines guide, and if the sums above turn into a purchase, equipment finance is the next page.
Specifications and features are indicative, vary by variant, location and date, and should always be confirmed with the official OEM or authorised dealer before any purchase decision. DesiMachines is not liable for decisions taken on the basis of information that may have changed after publication.