Review & Test Run: The First Electric Mini Excavator, JCB’s 19C-1E

JCB came out with the industry’s first all-electric compact excavator in 2019. Five years later and 1,200 machines produced, we check in to see how the 1.9-metric-ton model is doing and what it’s like to run the 19C-1E.
Host of The Dirt and professional operator Bryan Furnace first takes us on a walkaround tour of the electric mini excavator led by JCB product manager Lee Tice. After that, Bryan hops in the cab to do some digging in Savannah dirt.
He gives us his impressions of the excavator’s performance, including how it stacks up to a diesel machine. He also gets answers to the questions contractors are most likely to ask when it comes to battery-powered equipment. The first being: What’s the runtime?
So to find out what’s it like to run an electric excavator, its pros and cons and whether it’s something that could fit in on your jobsites, check out the latest episode of The Dirt.
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In This Episode:
00:00 – JCB 19C-1E Electric Mini Excavator Overview and Review
00:44 – Equipment Walkaround
01:40 – Power and Hydraulics
02:44 – Dig End Maintenance and Pin Size
04:01 – Charging and Side Door
05:54 – Machine Weight
06:40 – Counterweight
07:02 – Service, Repairs and Warranty
10:14 – Rear Compartment
12:04 – Tie-Down Points
12:16 – Cab and Operation
14:30 – Review
15:53 – Machine Noise
17:07 – Instant Power
19:01 – Charge Time
20:52 – Track and Dozer Blade Adjustability
21:32 – Cab Layout and Size
22:45 – Runtime
24:32 – Final Thoughts

Video Transcript:
Bryan Furnace
Today we're here to talk about some electric equipment, but this time is going to be a little different because I'm actually running it and we're going to do a review. We're talking about JCB Electric Mini Excavator, and we're going to do this review just a slight bit different than the ones we have in the past.

Bryan Furnace
The first part of this interview is actually going to be me walking around the machine with the product expert, because I really wanted to capture some of the dialog that happens before I actually enter and run the machine. And then from there, we'll move into our kind of standard equipment review. So all that being said, enjoy.

Lee Tice, JCB product manager
So 19 C1E okay. launched in 2019 for JCB. So it was the first electric mini excavator on the market. Real big thing about this machine is going to be no compromise from its original counterpart. So JCB designed it. We designed it. So you get all the same performance that you would get out of the diesel machine. Zero emissions, low noise package.

So that's the real big thing there. So all the features that come along with that diesel machine. So 13ft a dig right at nine feet of load over height. Same machine footprint. So still a 1.9 mini excavator compact size. So that's the real big thing going to the electric machine that we like to point out first is that you're not losing anything.

Yeah. By going to an electric package you're really gaining that zero emission low noise and opening up doors for different applications. Just out of curiosity, with the electric motors, are you guys able to actually get more power out of the machine? or is or is your restriction the hydraulics really at that point, your, your tear out forces and all that, it's going to be right on par with the diesel machine.

So, right at 4000ft pounds of tear out force on the bucket, what you will get is more responsiveness. Yeah. So we're a diesel machine. You're having to spool that engine up, get that RPM to get the motor spinning. Are the hydraulic pumps. Yep. With the electric it's all proportional to that joystick. Yeah. So you will feel more responsiveness out of an electric machine.

And you've got auxiliary hydraulics on that. Yeah. Got auxiliary hydraulics. So you can run you can put a thumb on the front. You can put breakers on it. That's a big one where you get some of these indoor applications where you're having to go excavate to get to utility work inside of a retail store, whatever it may be.

Yeah. so you can put a breaker hydraulic attachments on the front. Just out of curiosity, what does that do to your battery time. So it will decrease your battery time running continuous flow on. Yeah. On your hammer is a pretty drastic. It's not as drastic as you would think. Okay. So I'd say continuous. Your run time is going to go from a five-hour continuous down to about a three-hour continuous.

Oh that's not horrible. So big thing on our mini excavators as well. It's going to be what I'm holding here in my hand. So bronze graphite impregnated bushings 500-hour greasing interval on the dig into this machine. Wow. So that's literally graphite.