West-Midlands’ plant and tool specialist WHC Hire Services is the first company in the UK to offer customers an electric Kubota mini excavator, using the company’s award-winning Electric Requip conversion technology. The machine, built with local dealer Lister Wilder, will be offered to customers from the start of 2026, as the business looks to gauge interest from end-users on site.
The business, based in Tewkesbury with depots in Worcester and Chipping Norton, is no stranger to electrification and carbon reduction. The firm was one of the first to try a full electric mini excavator in 2019 and it currently runs an electric van in its service fleet. Delivering carbon reduction, new technologies and improved equipment safety and performance to customers are core principles within the business. WHC has made a sustainability promise to help its customers through the process of carbon reduction.
The company admits that an electric mini excavator is not going to suit every application, the high initial purchase cost and therefore hire rate of many options make a move to zero emissions a difficult juggling act. Kubota’s Electric Requip has been designed to make that transition to battery power more cost effective.
The process requires an existing diesel machine, in the case of WHC one of its two-year old Kubota KX019-4 models. Kubota’s dealer, in this case Lister Wilder, removes the diesel engine and its ancillaries, before installing an 18kW lithium-ion battery pack and an electric motor, matching the power to the diesel engine. The electric motor drives the machine’s regular hydraulic pump, delivering similar performance and allowing the KX019-4e to work with all of the standard machine’s attachments and tools without compromise.
The conversion includes an on-board battery charger, with a conventional Type 2 connector in the side panel of the machine. This allows customers to connect to an EV charger, or to use a variety of electrical inputs, from a 240V domestic supply, through to three-phase on-site power. The battery delivers up to 4 hours of continuous run time and can be recharged overnight, or in a matter of hours, depending on electrical supply.
The machine can be offered to customers as a battery electric mini excavator, but when the time comes to update the fleet, it can either be sold as an electric model, or the battery can be removed and reused on another excavator, while the diesel engine is reinstalled and the machine marketed as a diesel. This massively reduces the cost of the electric machine, when compared to a ground-up battery model, allowing WHC to offer the KX019-4e at a rate that is far closer to a diesel model.
“The real beauty of the machine versus the competition though, is the weight,” says WHC Managing Director James Clutterbuck. “We have designed and built a trailer that can carry the electric machine, with buckets and a breaker, that is still within the permitted towing weight.”
At just 1,860kg, the electric conversion is close to the mass of the standard diesel model, unlike many competitors that sit well above 2-tonnes. WHC designed its own patented trailer, built by Ifor Williams, that securely carries a mini excavator, breaker and buckets without any requirement for multiple straps or chains to tie the machine down.
While much of the initial attention around electric machines has been for use inside buildings or in tunnelling operations, where exhaust emissions are the biggest concern, the reduction in noise is equally important. WHC can see the machine being used when working next to schools or hospitals, during night work in urban areas and in a host of other applications.
Customers were given a chance to try the machine recently at the firm’s Cotswold depot. Getting behind the controls naturally removes much of the scepticism that many feel towards the unknown and customers were quickly imagining applications in which the machine would work for them. Preconceived ideas were dispelled, even after a short drive.
WHC Hire Solutions is a family-owned business, that was started in 1997 at the Worcester site. Head office moved to a new location in Tewkesbury in 2010 and the third depot marked a move to cover demand from further to the East. That said, the business has many long-term customers that operate nationally, so its service area is far wider than the depots might suggest.
The fleet includes more than 3,000 power tools and around 800 pieces of plant, running from a micro excavator to a 25-tonne crawler machine. Kubota machines make up a sizeable proportion of the fleet, with WHC operating models up to the 8.5-tonne KX085-5, along with tracked dumpers.
“The vast majority of our fleet is Kubota,” said Sean Firth, WHC’s Marketing Manager. “When we change our equipment, we look at everything that is on the market, to decide what is the best for our customers. James carries out a 210-point inspection of each machine, to assess performance and versatility. Kubota machinery has been the most superior.
“The machines are very good, very reliable and a lot of our customers specify Kubota. Our customers come to us for a level of quality. So we work with our dealer Lister Wilder to deliver that.”
With the Kubota Electric Requip, WHC Hire Solutions has taken another step towards a net zero future, for itself and for its customer base.
“We’re bringing a new option to the customer,” said Mr Clutterbuck. “We’ve been doing a lot of work on sustainability and carbon reduction and I’d like to think that we can get a wider audience for it with this machine conversion.”
