It's electric

It's electric! Caterpillar's mining division plans to start showing electric haul trucks to top customers as soon as later this year, and to introduce them commercially in late 2008, according to the company. "We have pilots running now. We're still a little ways away from delivering a commercial truck," said Chris Curfman, president of Caterpillar Global Mining. "We're going to be looking to the MinExpo in September 2008 for some fairly aggressive introductions." Competitor Komatsu already has an electric haul truck on the market, which it developed by forming a joint venture with a Mitsubishi subsidiary. Caterpillar is developing its electric trucks in-house. No word yet on whether or not the company will tarket the aggregates industry with the trucks. Your comment?