Equipmake, a market leader in engineering-driven differentiated electrification technologies, products and solutions across the automotive, truck, bus and speciality vehicle industries, has reached a key milestone in its Project Coeus collaboration with Perkins, an advanced hybrid e-powertrain for off-highway applications featuring an custom Equipmake e-motor entering real-world testing for the first time.
Following extensive development, and five months after its debut at CONEXPO-CON/AGG, Perkins’ advanced fuel-configurable hydrogen hybridised industrial open power unit (IOPU) is being integrated into a Terex Ecotec TDS 820 high-performance shredder.
The work, the first application of Project Coeus, is being carried out by Perkins’ Customer Machine Engineering Team at its research and development facility in Peterborough, after which the demonstrator will undergo a series of tests at Perkins’ proving site. These will demonstrate the proof of technology concept, including the system’s ability to meet the peak load demands and transient response requirements of the machine.
At the core of the hybrid power unit is an entirely new spoke architecture heavy duty electric motor, custom designed and developed in-house at the company’s facility in Snetterton, Norfolk, UK. Combined with the company’s own silicon carbide inverter technology and all associated power electronics, Equipmake has been responsible for integrating this new motor generator unit (MGU) with a spark-ignited Perkins engine to boost performance. Based on the Perkins 1200 Series platform, the 1206 hydrogen hybrid IOPU delivers a combined 397 kW (508 hp) and 1,938 Nm at 1,200-1,500 rpm.
Packaging this level of electrified performance within a unit designed as a direct replacement for an existing diesel IOPU is central to the project’s aims. By offering a robust, ‘plug and play’ solution, the technology is intended to allow off-highway OEMs to accelerate their transition to lower carbon fuels and electrification without the need to fundamentally redesign their machines.
Led by Perkins, a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., Project Coeus is a three-year programme bringing together Perkins, Equipmake and Loughborough University’s Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering. The project was awarded £11.14m in UK Government funding through the APC in 2023, of which Equipmake was awarded £3.24m. The four fuels selected for the project – ethanol, methanol, bio-methane and hydrogen – are all spark-ignited, with Perkins creating a configurable spark-ignited combustion platform on which the hybrid system is based.
Ian Foley, Equipmake CEO, said: “This is a proud moment for everyone at Equipmake. Our role in Project Coeus has been to deliver a custom-designed heavy-duty electric motor – paired with our own silicon carbide inverter technology and all associated power electronics – and integrate that with a Perkins engine. The resulting hybrid industrial open power unit can cope with the extreme demands of off-highway applications and is packaged so it can sit within a genuine drop-in replacement for a diesel power unit. Moving from the test cell into a machine as demanding as a high-performance shredder is exactly the proving ground this technology needs.
“Off-highway OEMs want to decarbonise without compromising productivity or
re-engineering their machines from scratch, and hybridisation combined with lower carbon fuels such as hydrogen offers a practical route to doing that. This milestone shows the strength of UK engineering collaboration, and how the electrification expertise we have built in sectors such as bus and coach can be applied to the global off-highway market.”
Over recent years, Equipmake has become a globally recognised expert in the provision of sector-specific heavy-duty electric powertrains, becoming a leader in the repowering of buses and coaches from ICE to fully electric, utilising its vertically integrated motor and inverter technology. From its Norfolk HQ, the company provides the complete electric vehicle solution, offering everything from motors to fully electrified platforms, supporting primarily the automotive, commercial vehicle, off-highway, marine, defence and aerospace sectors.
