Sustainability is at the core of everything we do at Tata Hitachi.

BKR Prasad, General Manager – Marketing, Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery Company

How important is sustainability to your company’s mission & values?

Our mission statements say “Our hallmark is our motivated people, customer centric culture, superior technologies and strong partnerships, all working safely in unison with environment and society.” Commitment to environment and society forms part of our guiding principles. At Tata Hitachi, sustainability is at the core of everything we do. We are deeply invested and committed to reducing our carbon footprint using eco-friendly technology and practices.

Our parent company – Hitachi Construction Machinery, Japan, is strongly committed to sustainability and aims for a sustainable society. Hitachi Construction Machinery is creating an environmental value strategy to achieve an environmental vision, based on the three key themes of “Decarbonized Society”, “Resource Efficient Society” and “Harmonized Society with Nature.”

We at Tata Hitachi believe that it is our responsibility to protect the planet for future generations and are continuously implementing measures to minimize waste, conserve resources and reduce emissions. Our team is dedicated to finding innovative solutions that not only benefit the environment but also provide customers with cost-effective and efficient equipment. This belief is implemented through initiatives both in terms of products and production methods.

What types of sustainable construction equipment does your company manufacture, and how do they differ from traditional equipment?

Tata Hitachi promotes eco-friendly products and services. Apart from ensuring that our wheeled equipment adhere to regulatory requirements of CEV-4 emission norms, we are working to ensure that our excavators are also compatible with emission norms which will be implemented in future. In addition, we also maintain a target of reducing fuel consumption of all our products and models through engineering innovations. With our TL340H PRIME, we are also the first and only manufacturer in India, of hydrostatic wheel loaders that assure fuel savings to the tune of 20% over conventional wheel loaders. Also, our excavators are very well-known in the market for their fuel efficiency.

Lower fuel consumption of machines is beneficial for both the global environment (adding to our core – sustainability) and saving customers’ fuel costs (being the preferred choice).

What specific technologies or features do you incorporate into your sustainable CE (e.g. electric or hybrid power, reduced emissions, recyclable materials)?

India is committed to achieve the target of net zero emissions by 2070 in COP26 last year. Keeping this in mind, we displayed the CNG-powered backhoe loader SHINRAI at the last EXCON held in May’22. Also, we were the 1st in the CE industry to showcase Hitachi’s hybrid excavator ZH200 in EXCON 2017. If the demand increases, we are ready to introduce and scale up production to meet it.

There are various aspects being considered to introduce sustainable equipment. These include technologies suitable for different product classes, in terms of usability, mobility, infrastructure requirement, cost impact and how much leeway the platform allows us, etc. Based on these considerations, we have identified various projects to be taken up for the electrification of our different categories of models in our portfolio. Hitachi Construction Machinery, Japan, our parent company has electric drive technology in their mini excavator products and in large mining machinery.  

How does the cost of sustainable construction equipment compare to traditional equipment, and what steps is your company taking to make sustainable equipment more affordable?

As explained earlier, sustainability is at the core of everything we do at Tata Hitachi. With this philosophy we believe that customer requirements need to be addressed through measures of sustainability for competitiveness and increased profits for our customers.

In terms of affordability, we maintain a target of reducing fuel consumption of all our products and models through engineering innovations while adhering to the tight emission standards of CEV4. With our TL340H PRIME, we are the first and only manufacturer in India, of hydrostatic wheel loaders that assure fuel savings to the tune of 20% over conventional wheel loaders. Also, our excavators are very well-known in the market for their fuel efficiency. This way, we continuously innovate to introduce products that are affordable and sustainable.

How does your company measure the environmental impact of the equipment, and what metrics does it use to track sustainability?

On the operations side of the business, we take aggressive carbon footprint reduction targets each year and work towards that. We have reduced our carbon footprint in manufacturing by 45% in the last 5 years.

How does your company support the adoption of sustainable construction practices among its customers, and what resources or services do you provide to help them transition to sustainable equipment?

For our customers who use this equipment for construction activities, our imperative is to enhance machine performance and fuel savings. Backed with cutting-edge technology from Hitachi Construction Machinery (HCM), our range of equipment come with a host of performance enhancement features like Work Modes, Power Modes, coupled with fuel saving features like auto-idle and auto-deceleration, to name a few.

Our equipment incorporates advanced technologies like IoT, telematics and mobility solutions and this has become a standard for us. ConSite and InSite are two such proprietary technologies that enable customers to remotely monitor their machines through granular, real-time operational, maintenance, location, and health data. Frequent reports include analysis of performance, fuel consumption and machine productivity, that allows customers to visualize the operation and health status of their machines, improve the efficiency of the machines, maintenance management and to work closer with us for timely intervention to lower the impact on environment by keeping machines working in top condition. This way, we actively encourage our customers to carefully analyse and use these reports for improving the efficiency of our machines.

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