Oslo, Norway-headquartered Rental Group AS is the largest rental company specialising in heavy equipment in the Nordic region – today it has about 800 machines over 25 t class and up to about 110 t class. It includes excavators, dump trucks and ADTs, dozers, wheeled excavators etc. Significantly a major part of the fleet is now zero emissions – about 160 units.
Not only that but it has its own service department taking care of all of the electric machines; for the diesel machines, many are serviced by the OEMs themselves or in some cases also by Rental Group. It has around 120 service engineers based across Norway, Sweden and Iceland. IM Editorial Director Paul Moore spoke to Rental Group Zero Emissions Manager Kim Massey recently about its zero emissions fleet journey so far and what is coming in the future.
Rental Group Zero Emissions Manager Kim Massey
He estimates that its business is today about 80% construction with about 20% quarrying and mining. But even the construction is focussed on heavy construction such as major road building works and earthmoving.
On the machines themselves he states: “Rental Group is multibrand – we buy the machines that suit our customers best and make the best rental proposal for us and them. Part of why we have such a large LiuGong fleet at the moment is that we see that LiuGong is by far the best within wheel loaders and also for some of the excavators and mining equipment. They also offer good value for money and customer relations.”
In relation to electric equipment, he added that it was significant that LiuGong machines tend to have larger batteries than competitor machines meaning they have a longer life between charges. Other electric equipment in the Rental Group fleet includes units from Caterpillar, Hitachi, Volvo, Develon, SANY and Hydrema.
All the business with LiuGong is handled directly with the LiuGong HQ and factory in Liuzhou as there is no direct LiuGong dealer in Norway.
So has the zero emissions drive been from Rental Group itself seeking to be more sustainable or from customers wanting these solutions? Massey: “It is very much a mix of both. Yes of course we and our customers want to be more sustainable but it also reflects market changes. In Norway we have a lot of support schemes for using electric equipment, plus there are also increasing demands from local authorities to use them – for example if you want to carry out construction work in the city of Oslo, the council there requires you to use zero emissions machines from 2025 onwards.”
That is where Rental Group can step in, to provide the forward thinking construction companies with zero emissions solutions and associated charging capabilities. While there are not the same requirements to move to zero emissions in Scandinavia in the mining and quarrying sector, it still brings significant benefits there. Massey: “Especially where we are hauling downwards, which in this region is quite common, you get the energy regeneration. They save both on not having to use diesel but also not having the service and maintenance involved in running a diesel fleet. Diesel engines after 3,000 hours start to become quite costly from a service point of view so the zero emissions equipment cost upside really kicks in after about four years for quarrying users.”
Battery electric SANY truck being charged in challenging winter conditions
What about the capital cost of diesel versus electric for Rental Group itself and how does this influence the associated rental charges? “Electric machines are more expensive for customers to rent, because we need to cover our costs and they are more expensive for us to purchase. In addition, the residual value of the zero emissions today is lower or at least more unknown – so as a business we need a bit more of a safety net there at the moment. Plus the fact that we are servicing them as opposed to the OEM.”
Massey said that things will change as these machines get more hours on them. “In three to five years we will have a lot more knowledge into the longer term performance of the machines as they will have thousands more hours worked. Knowledge is key for our whole business and even though we have offered electric machines for a couple of years, it is still pretty new to the rental market in Europe and to the construction and mining industries generally.”
Are there other major challenges Rental Group has seen with zero emissions equipment – whether to do with cold climate performance, or required charging times? “You are right in the Nordics we have to contend with very cold winters – and LiuGong has tackled that well with their battery heating and battery heating management system. With most of their machines, customers can produce about the same in -20°C as they do in +20°C. With other brands it is a real mix – some have performed well and others not at all – plus there is variation between machine types even for the same brand.”
Massey said the charging issue was also very important as its customers want to look at electric machines in the same way as they do with diesel in terms of availability and uptime. “That means trying to make their experience the same or better. Charging can also be a learning curve for customers as they have not used it before. So it involves a bit more investment from our side in working with the customer on how to efficiently manage the charging and how to handle the electrical set up and components. We also want to make the operator feel confident.”
Rental Group also has to manage the charging strategy with the customer operating requirements. “If a quarry is operating 18 hours a day; first of all before having the electric truck on site, we need to do an energy calculation based upon the haul road network. We also need to know what kind of rock they are hauling, and what kind of charging power is available on site. So a lot of calculations go into it long before equipment gets to site. Plus, we stay a little bit pessimistic just to be on the safe side, to give us some real world leeway when they start to use the truck. Overall, to be able to operate for 18 hours, you are dependent on having very good and well maintained haul roads and also hauling a full payload dowhill. You need the regeneration unless you have very flat roads.”
Rental Group has one of the largest electric wide body haul truck fleets in Europe today – consisting of five SANY 70 t class SKT105E units and ten SANY SKT90E 60 t class units. These SANY trucks have been operating for almost two years now since August 2023. They have had some teething problems as might be expected but are now running well. Plus they have been used across the quarrying, tunnelling, road construction and even landfill sectors.
Rental Group even has some customers looking at going zero emissions and autonmous. “We actually have two user cases where we are working on this; and as part of this we are talking about possibilities to the third party AHS provider, Steer AS, which is based in Norway and has autonomous fleets running at two quarrying operations, where there is interest from their client in switching to LiuGong battery rigid trucks.” The challenge for Steer would be to work with the steering mechanism and the back end control system of the LiuGong trucks, but is certainly something that is feasible and being worked on.
Massey has visited both the LiuGong and SANY factories in Liuzhou and Shenyang multiple times to collaborate with the OEMs on the machine customisations and builds. Rental Group engineers also travel to the sites once or twice a year for machine testing and validation. “We have an especially good relationship with LiuGong, and this was one of the reasons we are often the first to receive field follow units from them, including in the case of their 50 t class DR50C-E electric rigid truck, which was later showcased at Bauma in April 2025. They appreciate the feedback that we give and I think also the professionalism of our organisation. Plus working with us they get to see how the machine performs at different types of worksites.”
IM also discussed the battery electric LiuGong DR50C-E with Massey in more detail. It as a 423 kWh lithium iron phosphate battery back and series-connected dual HL001 permanent magnet synchronous motors which provide 13,200 Nm peak torque for near-zero energy use during 6-8% downhill operation via motor feedback. LiuGong ‘s VCU optimises energy management, while a robust braking system enhances safety. Operator comfort is improved with air suspension, LCD dashboard, and central control screen.
The first unit supplied to Rental Group in 2024 was a prototype, but after extensive testing and some design/system changes a new model was shipped to Europe, which was CE-certified ahead of bauma 2025. The Rental Group unit has also been CE-certified now after completing the same changes and racking up over 1,200 work hours. Both these models are the first in Europe and some of the first in the world. Rental Group has been charging its truck using a 300 kW fast charger with dual guns.
By end-2025, Rental Group will have five DR50C-E trucks in its fleet and Massey says there is a lot of potential demand in the mining sector. LiuGong also has a 100 ton class (91 t) hybrid rigid truck in its range, the DR100C-E, which may also have market possibilities in Europe, as it would compete with the Caterpillar 777, especially if a fully electric model is available in the future.
The DR50C-E has been operating at two of Rental Group’s customer quarries – one relatively flat with a gradual downhill and gradual uphill where it has been able to operate for just under eight hours on one charge. It was transporting blasted rock to the crusher from a 90 t Hitachi excavator. The other application was more demanding, with uphill haulage, with the truck achieving about four hours of running time with a full charge. An important reason for deployment at this site was to stress test the batteries in terms of the capabilities of the battery’s water-cooled battery thermal management system and also the high capacity charging. The machine is popular with operators because it is quiet and easy to operate. Minor bugs have been fixed in tandem with the CE-certification on this unit, with the amendments already factored into the additional four units being delivered this year.
And it isn’t just trucks in the LiuGong fleet – Rental Group has 40, 820TE electric wheel loaders, along with 50 21 t class electric 856HE wheel loaders and ten 870HE 26 t wheel loaders, which up until recently was the largest electric loader in the LiuGong range. It also has 11 924FE excavators and is also looking at the 23.5 t 4280DE electric grader. Rental Group is also getting larger electric wheel loaders from LiuGong – notably the 40 t class 8110TE with a 707 kW battery, which was also showcased at bauma 2025. This machine is equivalent to a Caterpillar 980 in size.
At this 50 to 100 t range of size classes, does Massey think wide body or rigid mining trucks have the edge in Scandinavia? “We actually see a market for both. For more heavy usage right from the shovel at the blasted face we have the DR50C-E and for more regular material handling routes along well maintained haul roads we have the wide body option. There is a significant cost difference between the machines – the wide body trucks being a lot cheaper, so that is also a factor.”
Massey said while the wide body concept is now well established, it was a difficult sell initially just because it was new to the European market, while it also took operators a while to get used to them. However, today there are a number of wide body trucks running in Europe as well as those from Rental Group, including SANY electric trucks running at LKAB’s Svappavaara iron ore mine in Sweden for contractor Snells, supplied by SANY dealer Nordkust.
Going forward, Massey said as a multi-brand company it is also open to working with other machine brands as well – and of course from XCMG to Tonly there are a lot of options out there. He also said that it is closely following the potential greater deployment of battery swapping solutions in Europe in the future. For now, however, Rental Group’s own in-house electrical engineers believe that a right sized battery together with a fast charger set up, is the best option and that this will continue to improve as battery and charger technology evolves. “Having extra fully charged batteries just standing at a swapping station can be seen as unused capacity. Plus the swapping station itself represents a significant extra investment.”
