As the world rapidly continues its critical journey to find solutions for combating climate change, every building block counts. Firstgreen Industries (FGI) is adding to this quest with the introduction of its range of fully electric skid steers to the African market through its South African based partner, Demolition and Drilling Equipment (DDE).

FGI has entered the skid steer market with one simple task: to provide sustainable, environmentally conscious, zero emission, fully electric machines. Extreme power, clean operation and minimum noise for the operator and environment are the key elements of their product performance. The Elise 900 and the MiniZ 400 are both built with high quality, 99% recyclable materials. All machines are 98% recyclable.
Now that you have ticked the green box, great, but even if you are a climate change sceptic, these machines still make unbelievable sense.

They are not only saving the planet, these skid steers also dramatically improve on what the skid steer market already has.
It almost sounds contradictory to suggest that improvement comes with reducing or eliminating, but it is true for FGI machines.  Some are obvious. Think electric. Through their pure electric nature, dirty diesel emissions are a thing of the past and noise virtually unheard of. Add to this far lower running and maintenance costs compared to internal combustion engine skid steers. There is simply no diesel engine with an exponentially higher number of moving parts which can break down and need constant maintenance.

There’s more. In hazardous and dangerous environments, risk to human life is entirely eliminated. All FGI machines have full remote-control capability built in from the factory. And if you really do not want to tempt the operator, the Elise CBL and Rockeat models have no operator cabin at all. All machines can be controlled from the dedicated remote-control box or, if you are in a pickle or want to just show off, then your phone will do the job just fine. Want to control the machine from the surface, or why not from the other side of the planet? No problem - remote telemetry on these machines is incredibly easy to implement.

So, what’s the catch? Less power? Well, no, just as powerful as traditional skid steers but with the added benefit of precision control of the power you need. Different power modes which can be electronically controlled and adjusted from a touch screen inside the cab (and even from your phone). Obviously full power and torque mode will drain the battery quicker, but that is easily overcome by the quick-change interchangeable battery which slides out from the rear of the machine. Let’s address the elephant in the room, loadshedding, as experienced in many African countries including South Africa and Zambia, for example. The sun is not going anywhere soon, and yes solar is not free, but is far cheaper than diesel when running your skid steer. We have the numbers to prove it. Check out the cost calculator at https://first.green/en/calculator. All FGI machines have quick swap batteries as standard and DDE will also be providing innovative battery charging solutions for the challenges we face in this part of the world.

The FGI line up is made up of the traditional Elise series, the Elise CBL (cabinless), Rockeat (cabinless low profile) and the MiniZ (the popular remote small tracked loader). FGI is a Czech Republic headquartered company and has seen an explosion of units shipped worldwide since 2020. It recently appointed DDE as its dealer for sub-Saharan Africa. DDE already has many years of experience with electric machines, being the exclusive distributor of Brokk remote controlled demolition robots for the past 15 years. DDE is based in Jet Park, Johannesburg, and has a fully equipped workshop and field service team which currently supports equipment across the African continent.

Come and meet us at Electra Mining Africa, taking place at the Johannesburg Expo Centre from the September 2 to 6, 2024. See you there.