JCB's new excavator launched
JCB has taken the wraps off a new generation of tracked excavator following one of the biggest investment programmes in the Staffordshire digger giant's history.
The company has ploughed £110 million into developing its ‘X Series’ which will compete in a global tracked excavator market where almost 190,000 machines are sold every year.
The new product is starting to roll off production lines at JCB Heavy Products in Uttoxeter and is now being launched to customers around the world.
JCB chairman Lord Bamford said: “The market for tracked excavators has grown enormously since JCB made its first one in 1965 and we now export these machines all over the world. The X Series is an evolutionary product which also contains high levels of innovation. The operators have been at the heart of its development and they will find it extremely comfortable to use. While the cost of the development of the X Series is a big investment for a private company to make, we are very happy to do it because the market opportunity is huge.”
Group chief executive Graeme Macdonald said: “This is a massive investment and underlines just how serious JCB is in building its presence in the tracked excavator sector. Over the last four years our design team has been developing a game-changing excavator, one that is ready to seize the opportunity offered by the period of growth the construction industry is currently experiencing.”
JCB manufactured its first tracked excavator in 1965 and the ‘X Series’ denotes the fact the new machine is the tenth generation of this particular type of JCB product. Some of the main features of the new X Series include a cab which is 15 per cent larger, making it one of the biggest on the market. The cabs are made at JCB Cab Systems in Rugeley.
Fuel consumption is also 15 per cent better on this new machine and it’s also 10 per cent more productive.
