I bought a container full of Chinese electric excavators. Here's what showed up
100 comments
·February 4, 2025serviceberry
bryanlarsen
> An excavator or a tractor deprecates far more slowly, and many private owners keep them for 20-30 years.
There are still tractors and excavators from the 50's in regular use.
> Battery-powered equipment will probably need new battery packs before that.
It's a tiny 10kWh battery, $1000 - $2000. It looks like about 6 hours / cycle, so that's ~4000 of work time, longer if you don't mind reduced capacity. That's quite comparable to a diesel which needs an overhaul every ~10,000 hours.
Shog9
The battery life is probably not an issue in practice; the author estimates 5 hours per charge - assuming a very conservative 2000-cycle life for the pack, that's 10,000 hours of work, which is quite respectable.
Yes, a private owner might keep a tractor for decades, but probably not using it for hours every single day and definitely not without some pretty significant repairs; the cost of a new 200ah battery pack is nothing compared to a diesel engine rebuild.
I... Tend to suspect other parts on these things will be unacceptably worn long before the battery craps out.
potato3732842
If you can dig 5ft you can trench ~5ft because you basically back the excavator as you go and are digging at full depth right in front of you all the time.
econ
Most obvious seems indoor operation.
pjc50
Reminded of the urban legend of London's buried indoor excavators: https://www.quarrymagazine.com/buried-diggers-fact-or-urban-...
Once you've dug away the floor enough, I imagine it's harder to get it out.
altacc
Related, Oslo has rules for reducing emissions from building sites which has made it a pioneer in the development and use of electric building machinery. Some of it is battery powered and some requires a really long extension cord. I do wonder how practical that is when maneuvering and if they need somebody to move the cable out of the way when it reverses. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/10/oslo-leads-qui...
A 38-ton electric track excavator that requires a cable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYuYgPv8s5c
Yeul
Yeah for Americans:
In some countries things like pollution and noise matters. And China went all in on batteries.
yostrovs
Thanks, whoever you are. We Americans, with pollution control laws and noise ordinances, didn't know other peoples are also concerned about these things.
altacc
Well, you had those laws and ordinances! Let's wait a few days to see if they survive the ongoing bonfire of government entities once they are deemed criminal government interference, a scam or communism ;)
I don't know where the poster is but Europe has very loud cities. Oslo is particularly quiet and car free in the centre and almost every other city I travel to in Europe seems loud and hectic in comparison.
twothamendment
Any excavator beats a shovel!
I'm just a homeowner with a decent size piece of land and lots of trees. The ground is glacial till/drumlin, so rocks vary from gravel, to bowling balls and table size boulders.
I have a 7,000 lb excavator and couldn't imagine using smaller for my needs, but there is a right size for everyone!
I'd love it if mine were electric. I don't use it all of the time or all day, but the smoking old diesel is not the part of it that I enjoy.
voakbasda
I have owned a 3.5T mini excavator for over a decade. This class of machine is around 8’ wide and almost 10’ tall. Any bigger any I couldn’t haul it with my pickup truck. I use it regularly on my farm and love it, but it is far too big for many tasks.
Consequently, I recently bought a 1.3T micro excavator. It’s only 36” wide and less than 8’ tall, and even shorter with the canopy off. It opens up a whole new world of jobs that I can do without breaking my back, but it cannot come close to doing the same amount of work as the bigger machine.
Recently, I mucked out a livestock shelter with the micro machine, as my mini could barely reach into the structure without bumping the roof. The micro can drive all around in the structure; however, it can barely reach high enough to dump its bucket into the dump trailer. As a result, the small machine made a big pile outside the structure, then the big machine loaded it into the trailer.
Each machine did its portion of the work at least twice as fast as the other would take. It was a great demonstration of using the right tool for the job.
ianburrell
Would it be feasible to have micro-excavator drone? It seems like for one in article, a lot of space is used by the human driving it. They could make a smaller one that doesn't have cab and is controlled by remote. That would especially lower the height.
voakbasda
I would not try to convert one of these micro-excavators into a remote piloted unit, for a variety of reasons.
First, these machines are extremely unstable. You can find videos of people getting thrown off these micro-machines or laying them on their side. While removing the human operator would lower the center of gravity slightly, I would not expect that to be enough to change the equation.
Second, operating the machine involves sensing force feedback from the machine as it encounters resistance. I am not sure how that feedback could be translated to a remote operator. The operator seat also gives the best vantage point for seeing where you're driving, swinging the arm, and using the bucket/attachment.
Sure, you might be able to upgrade the controls to use solenoids for remote piloting, sensors on the hydraulics to send force feedback to your controller joysticks, and add a FPV camera system and AR headset that gives roughly the same visual perspective. Those extra systems would likely double or triple the cost of the machine. Even then, I think those solutions would be grossly inferior to the sensory feedback (and overall visceral experience) that you get from sitting on the machine and operating it directly.
For perspective, I spent less than $6K for a brand new machine, a pallet full of attachments (quick connect, two augers, several buckets, rake, and grapple), as well as a variety of performance and convenience upgrades (oil cooler/filter, swing motor cushion valve block, hydraulic thumb, auxiliary valves, and much more). At the end of the day, that is significantly less than the medical costs involved with repairing an intestinal hernia or ruptured disc.
kylebenzle
Also great demonstration of the benefits of being exceedingly wealthy.
rembicilious
Please, the exceedingly wealthy don’t muck out their own barn. Where I live a piece of equipment like an excavator is a great investment. It’s a tax write off and it frees up time for you to do other more valuable tasks instead of breaking your back with a shovel for far too long. Many (most) people will take out a loan to purchase a piece of equipment with the expectation that it will “pay for itself” over it’s service life.
542354234235
Ah yes, the classic trope of the wealthy farmer, mucking out the barn and then checking the time on his Patek Philippe watch. I bet his pigs only drink Voss water.
kotaKat
Yeah, dude got wealthy by mucking shit out of a barn. Pick up a shovel and give it a try -- you too, can get exceedingly wealthy :)
buggeryorkshire
really?
sampton
There should be a park for adults with bunch of these machines. Beats therapy.
davidsojevic
I once looked into this and there's actually more than a handful of theme parks like this, one of which even has a few locations:
georgeburdell
Huh, I thought Peppa Pig just made up Diggerland (I have young children)
alias_neo
Diggerland is amazing, we took our kids to the one near (in?) Leeds (NW England, UK), for my son's third birthday, he was able (allowed) to operate all but the largest which I would estimate is somewhere in the 7.5T range.
The diggers don't move, they're fixed in position, and don't rotate, but otherwise you have full control of the arm using the normal stick-type controls.
My 4yo daughter picked it up far quicker than myself despite me being a life-long gamer, but we all had a fantastic time.
There are various games set up with different type of "diggers" such as "hook a duck"; with a hook on the end of the arm, 10-pin bowling; with a mini wrecking ball on the end of the arm, tyre stacking, where you drive a weird looking machine with pincers and rear wheel steering (that one was challenging) and of course "dig a hole".
__m
Isn't there also some display "room" where they show these huge mining machines from CAT? They should have these at malls where wifes can drop their husbands off
alias_neo
Took my kids last year to Diggerland for my son's birthday, we had a great time, would highly recommend, see my other comment in this thread for a taste of what we saw/did.
youngtaff
It’s a few years since I’ve been but Diggerland is fab
Ever better is hiring a mini-digger from your local plant hire company when you’ve got some real work to do
echelon
Or other permutations of the idea:
GauntletWizard
About ten years ago I did https://digthisvegas.com/ - I had a great time, definitely recommend.
escapecharacter
Went to this last year. Had the time of my life.
jcgrillo
there are many parks, be the change you want to see in the world
m463
I'm reminded of the episode of malcolm in the middle where they bring a giant wood chipper home. And then start feeding random stuff into it...
wlonkly
Vegas has Dig This: https://digthisvegas.com
stevage
There's one in my area called Big Boys Toys or similar.
kylebenzle
These are tiny and very boring to use, literally a kids toy.
retox
The "Here's what showed up" is unnecessary; he bought a container of Chinese electric excavators.
mh-
Anyone who has ordered frequently from AliExpress (or Temu, Wish, ..) will tell you that line is not unnecessary.
fl0id
He did pre-shipping inspection, worked with the factory etc, donuts not at all like temu or aliexpress
TeMPOraL
Rather, it's exactly like approximately everything anyone here owns, because almost every physical good available to buy locally arrives from China in a container, in more-less the fashion described in the article.
croes
But did he order from AliExpress, Temu or Wish?
eudhxhdhsb32
Well it suggests the main topic will be discussion of what he received and that it may not have been as expected.
Without that, maybe the topic is about something like the customs and payment process.
alias_neo
Sadly it was neither of those things, he bought, and received exactly what was expected, the headline was simply click bait.
I only clicked through as I expected something unusually-interesting, but read it anyway because electrified big-kid toys.
mcphage
It’s not even that—he worked with a factory to modify some of their excavators for US customers. So he knew exactly what he was getting because he helped design them.
jumploops
My toddler is absolutely obsessed with excavators.
We've seen the famed "no-name diesel-powered Chinese mini-excavator bought at auction for $5,200" and I'd be lying if I say the thought hasn't crossed my mind ;)
An all electric excavator seems even cooler... now to leave the city.
dhosek
Kind of reminds me of being on vacation with my family in Michigan and the only place with cell reception was a construction site nearby. While talking with my wife who was in Morocco at the time, I climbed inside a front loader to avoid the mosquitos and then discovered I couldn’t open the door from the inside to get back out. I don’t remember how I managed to finally escape my predicament.
eru
Perhaps you didn't, and you are still inside?
usefulcat
Same here with my oldest kid at that age. I've definitely seen every episode of Mighty Machines, most multiple times.
Llamamoe
There's even cheaper ones on AliExpress/Alibaba, and some of them are pretty good- there are YouTube videos from owners, and even some Reddit testimonials. The quality is extremely variable, but some of them are apparently pretty good.
MaKey
You could start with a small building block excavator from Mould King and build it together. I bet you both will love it!
genter
60 years ago, a super shitty car company from Japan called Toyota starting importing their pieces of shit to us. They were small, weird, with a poorly translated manual. And they were shit. And Toyota kept improving, and learning from their mistakes, and got to know the US market better. And now they are one of the largest corporations on Earth.
This is why when I see a $1 stepper motor on AliExpress, or a YouTube review of some cheap Vevor tool, or a shipping container of electric miniexcavators, I realize this is China being a teenager, learning how to be an adult. And they are a lot bigger than Japan, and are going to have a bigger impact than Toyota, or Sony, or Mitsubishi.
And this is why I hate Trump. Because he is completely right about how much China is gaining on us, but he has no understanding of how or why, and is therefore doing absolutely nothing to actually help us maintain our manufacturing power.
metalman
Nail, on head. And as a serial entrepenuer working with metal and machinery, I can promise you that western policy is very much built around protecting the bloated, monopolys and du-opoloys from inovation and competition. I built a thumb for my backhoe, from salvaged steel and ramdom used hydraulics, and it works great, I can grab and postion big rocks, and hold a tree at a convienient hight for bucking it up. Total cash cost, under $400, to by from the dealer would be close to $10000, close to which side of 10000?, not sure..... Full spanky new machine, ha!, grown men get moon eyed when they look at that old machine with its bucket and thumb. The real cost of wildly overpriced equipment is that it is a significant factor in rural devitalisation, with small land owners and farmers unable to earn or create what is nessescary for raising a family. And we are then loosing the skills needed to do many of the things that are fundamental to maintaining and building basic infrastructure in smaller jobs at acceptable prices, leading to further decline. The realy realy uggly part of this process, is that farm boys, having NO possibilty of staying in the country, signed up, and came back physicaly and/or damaged themselves, and now, for the most part, there is no remaing resevoir of humans, that are inclined to do things in trenches, of whatever variety. Its not called the military, industrial, complex, for nothing.
UncleOxidant
And a lot of the things he's doing are going to make things worse for us.
croes
Especially in the long run after his presidency
CraigJPerry
Does China not end up running headlong into the problem of demographics? It’s a structural problem that the US isn’t really facing.
US: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_S...
China: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_China
That’s like a 1/3rd reduction in workforce.
maxglute
Both JP and SKR increased gdp/productivity ~10-20x when they had <2 TFR by increasing % of workforce to skilled/tertiary (advanced economies have skilled workforce approaching 70/80%). PRC is at ~20% while adding more skilled workforce than roughly OECD combined. Structurally China will add more just STEM in next 20 years than US projected to increase population, i.e. if every US newborn and immigrant (assuming current levels) are STEM, US will merely match PRC STEM generation. PRC also adding 80m other tertiary or vocational skilled ontop of that. For strategic competition, the structural demographic trend you should compare is PRC peaking at roughly 2x-3x US skilled workers who will be in workforce for 50+ years, i.e. greatest high skill demographic divident in recorded history. Meanwhile they'll be shedding 100s of millions of low productive workers. Imagine PRC workforce profile adding 5 japans and losing 3 nigerias. Another caveat being about 200m of population decline will be inefficient farming households that can be effectively replaced with 20m modern ag workers. Or 600m low productive (bottom 2 quantiles who are undereducated / old / left behind by modernization) contributes to like 5% of GDP, i.e. their consumption / productivity is comparable to a few 10s million of high value workers. Then consider PRC is also adding more industrial robotics / automation than RoW combined. The question is whether US can compete with PRC with multiple times more skilled talent and larger industrial base than they have now, both increasing at rates that US is structurally unable to close gap on for decades short of AGI / von neumann machine hailmary (which granted is a real possiblity, but then we're also in a world where PRC is spitting out incubated humans).
CraigJPerry
Maybe, but if you’re allocating all that resource in STEM, where do the essential trades (carpenters, plumbers, construction in general) come from? Without immigration, It’s a finite resource pool.
The analysis of losing unproductive workers and replacing them with highly skilled STEM graduates seems like a recipe for upset when a healthy economy needs more than just STEM.
whamlastxmas
Common sense tells me that it seems unrealistic for America to compete in manufacturing with China when have significantly higher costs of living, many fewer people, and a much more educated workforce who is less willing to screw on doll heads for 16 hours a day.
Tariffs seem like a way to help American manufacturing compete given all of that
bozhark
If only the leadership lead
nubinetwork
> toyota
And yet the latest supra's are just badge engineered BMW's, and a lot of their cars are being recalled for engine problems, or because the wheels fall off...
inemesitaffia
All Supra's have been BMW's
MattBearman
Only the mk 5 supra (2020 onwards) has anything to do with BMW. Up until the mk 4 stopped production in 02 there had been 25ish years of purely Toyota Supra/Celica Supra
nubinetwork
Not until 2019.
aorloff
Every month at the Bar None Auction there are quite a few newer model cheap excavators that go for about $3k. Typically like a 9k excavator or something small, gas or diesel powered.
https://bid.barnoneauction.com/lot/230633363/2024-agt-mh12r-...
Given the usage pattern of an excavator, which is that typically its sitting around until you need to use it nonstop for several days, I like the option of just filling it up with gas.
mttch
These would be great in the UK where we have smaller gardens and poor access. Typically access to rear gardens in semi-detached housing stock is down a narrow path between then houses. For terraced houses I’ve seen someone drive a mini-digger through the house to access the garden.
mythrwy
As a person who had dug a lot of holes in his life, these look completely awesome!
I'd like to see a more substantial version, these look like they would last about 15 uses before breaking and where do you get replacement parts?
icegreentea2
In case it's not clear, the article writer actually runs a business semi-customizing these from China, importing them, and selling in America (so yes, this is technically an ad).
The linked through site from the company says that they stock spare parts in the US (in Florida). Their warranty is for 1 year/1000 hours operation.
moron4hire
I can kind of see going in on something like this with my neighbor, as we both are rather new home owners trying to terraform our backyards into our own things, but ultimately I think I'd rather build something out of the Open Source Ecology project: https://www.opensourceecology.org/
0_____0
Maybe Earth will be uninhabitable someday and we'll have to terraform it then, but today what you're calling terraforming is just called 'landscaping.'
moron4hire
Have you perhaps ever heard of a concepts "poetic license" or "hyperbole"?
LinuxBender
Which excavator shops in the US would service these when they have a problem too complicated for the average construction worker to fix? Who sells the replacement parts?
potato3732842
For the gas ones the way it works is that the owner services it with aftermarket parts. It's all cookie cutter stuff. You break a spool valve and you punch spool valve into Amazon and someone is selling the same Chinese spool valve they built the machine with.
For the electric ones? Your guess is as good as mine but the fact that he says they sell parts makes me think that they're more tightly integrated machines and it's not as easy to source parts the gas ones so he buys parts with each order.
maxglute
Just a few purple panels away from constructicon paint scheme.
For folks who haven't operated an excavator, the trade-off with these mini-excavators isn't necessarily that they're underpowered. There are two other problems.
First, they are very wobbly and you're gonna be limited by that. You really need a fair amount of surface contact and a robust counterweight when you're extending the arm and moving boulders, pulling out roots, or digging into hard soil.
Second, you might look at specs and say "oh, cool, digging depth of 5 ft, I don't need more!". Except, this is attainable in one specific (and awkward) position of the excavator's boom and arm. It's less than that across most of the movement range.
Another thing to keep in mind that this is not like buying a car. An excavator or a tractor deprecates far more slowly, and many private owners keep them for 20-30 years. A diesel excavator will need DIY maintenance and simple repairs, but it should hold up for life. Battery-powered equipment will probably need new battery packs before that. Just something to keep in mind when figuring out the pros and cons. If you're in the suburbs, noise is a concern, but then, you honestly don't need your own excavator...