Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - August 2023 - 12

TECHNICAL INNOVATIONS
ELECTRIFICATION
Vanguard swappable and fixed batteries aim to electrify the jobsite
What is the charge time on the swappable
battery?
You can get to 80 percent in about 45
minutes, and a full charge in just over an
hour. If you put it on a piece of equipment
that you can get an hour of runtime from,
you can just hot-swap them all day.
The Vanguard SI Series swappable battery has
a capacity of 1.5 kWh.
Briggs & Stratton has joined the age of
electrification with its line of Vanguard
swappable and fixed lithium-ion batteries.
Two series of packs are available.
The SI Series is the swappable version
of the Vanguard batteries. It is a 48V,
1.5-kWh pack meant for applications
that would ordinarily utilize a singlecylinder
ICE powertrain. The FI Series is
the company's lineup of fixed 48V batteries,
with a power range of 3.5 kWh
to 10 kWh.
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering
spoke with Nick Moore, director of
product management, at CONEXPO
2023 in Las Vegas to discuss the details
of the Vanguard battery lineup and the
potential opportunities for electrification
of a wide variety of jobsite tools.
What was the catalyst for Briggs developing
this line of batteries?
We view ourselves as providers of power,
not just engines. Our entire application
engineering team is focused on working
with our OEMs to make sure they're using
the right piece of equipment for the job.
We saw the requirements and regulations
that were going to create demand for
battery-driven equipment. So we combined
our high-volume manufacturing
experience with our engine experience
and some battery experts that we
brought onboard to develop this product
line. Now the customer has a greater
range of choice between ICE and battery
power to suit their needs.
What are the differences between the
swappable batteries and the fixed
batteries?
We've had interest for the swappable batteries
for bigger pieces of equipment
than we originally thought because it
gets rid of the range anxiety. We thought
the swappable batteries were going to be
adopted by customers looking to replace
equipment with our single-cylinder engine.
It really becomes channel-focused
The largest of the Vanguard FI Series fixed
batteries has a capacity of 10 kWh.
- for example, rental companies are very
excited to have this technology and not
have to deal with a multitude of different
types of batteries on their shelf. They
want as many pieces of equipment to run
on the same battery as possible. That
said, the biggest differentiator between
fixed and swappable batteries is the overall
energy demands. If the customer can
meet their normal use case with a fixed
battery, then they're happy with that. But
if they can only get an hour of runtime
and need more, then they'll want the
swappable unit.
What is the typical application for the
10-kWh battery you offer?
Large, ride-on equipment is probably the
main use case. There's a lot of people
who are paralleling the packs together to
The FI Series fixed
batteries can be
paralleled to provide
additional capacity.
12 August 2023
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
ALL IMAGES: BRIGGS & STRATTON
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - August 2023

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