Prime minister examines hydrogen truck, crawler excavator made by Belarusian BelAZ

ZHODINO, 23 September (BelTA) – Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko visited Belarusian Autoworks (BelAZ trademark) and examined the company's latest vehicles, BelTA has learned.

A presentation of new BelAZ vehicles was arranged in honor of the 75th anniversary of the company's foundation.

The prototype of an absolutely new BelAZ haul truck was presented on 23 September. It is a haul truck powered by hydrogen fuel and able to carry 130 tonnes of freight.

BelAZ Chief Designer Aleksandr Naskovets noted: “It is an area we are exploring for the sake of the future. An engineering company in South Africa has already presented a hydrogen dump truck. But we are the world's first mining vehicles manufacturer to present such a vehicle. No other manufacturer has made one so far. It is a breadboard model. We use it to understand how it works, what profit we will get, what savings the customer will get. Ecological advantages are already obvious. In the future we will be able to make a lineup of hydrogen-powered trucks with the carrying capacity of 90-450 tonnes. We already have an agreement on creating several haul trucks that burn this kind of fuel.”

A 200-tonne hydraulic crawler excavator BelAZ BX20012 was also unveiled. It is fitted with a 12-cubic-meter bucket of the front shovel type and is designed to pair with 90-tonne and 130-tonne haul trucks. The implementation of this innovative project is another step towards securing import independence of the mining industry amid external restrictions.

Apart from that, a 130-tonne BelAZ 7513D haul truck was demonstrated in the company's proving ground. It was the best seller on the market of the Russian Federation last year.

Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko also visited BelAZ's thermogalvanic shop and the main assembly line shop.