Electric dump trucks stop being interesting the moment a fleet stops asking "is it green" and starts asking "will it do my route". That second question has three parts: how far it really goes while tipping and climbing with eleven tonnes of spoil aboard, where it charges, and what the battery does to payload. The Foton Auman iBlue 8x4 electric dump truck at USD 140,000 answers two of those clearly and leaves the third to your depot engineer. It runs a CATL 423 kWh pack, a motor rated 260 kW with 400 kW peaks, and a six-speed automatic — and it carries 19.3 tonnes of kerb weight doing it. Here is the honest read.

Motor and driveline: 2,500 N·m with no gears to change

The motor produces 260 kW rated and 400 kW peak, with rated torque 1,300 N·m and peak torque 2,500 N·m. Maximum speed is recorded at 89 km/h. Without publishing an engine-speed axis, we cannot tell you where in the working range that peak arrives — but the nature of an electric driveline means maximum torque is available from standstill, and that is the property which matters here: pulling away loaded on an unpaved gradient does not depend on finding the right gear at the right moment.

Drive goes through a six-speed automatic with a shift type recorded as manual-automatic, which implies the driver can intervene in gear selection but does not have to. For stop-start refuse rounds that is a genuine advantage over a twelve-speed manual: no clutch, no restarts uphill in traffic, less fatigue and less driveline abuse. It also means your workshop loses its most familiar maintenance task and gains one it may not have done before — ask who maintains it.

"Torque from zero revolutions changes how a loaded truck behaves off the line. It does not change how far it can go — that is still a battery question."

Range: 286 km CLTC is a ceiling, not a shift

The published figure is 286 km CLTC. CLTC is a laboratory test cycle, and on a truck whose working day consists of stopping, starting, hydraulic tipping, site idling and climbing with a load, real-world consumption will run substantially higher. Treat 286 km as an upper bound and plan your radius well inside it.

No energy-consumption figure per kilometre, no kWh-per-hour-of-tipping data and no real-world range figure appear anywhere in this record, so we quote none. What we can say is structural: with 423 kWh aboard, this configuration suits fixed, repeatable routes where distance is known in advance — quarry to stockpile, depot to waste transfer station, designated municipal rounds. It suits those routes very well. It does not suit unpredictable one-day spotting work, because you cannot send it somewhere unknown and be confident of getting it back.

Charging: the two hours assumes infrastructure you do not yet have

The two-hour charging figure assumes a high-power DC supply, and the record does not state what rating. Actual time depends on whichever charger you install and on ambient temperature at your site, so this belongs in your depot plan before purchase rather than after delivery. With 423 kWh on board, a charger sized for a full overnight window will generally cover single-shift operation; double-shift running usually requires opportunity charging during the day, which means a second capital item and a second space allocation.

Ask your electricity utility early. Grid connection cost and availability for high-power depot charging can exceed the price difference between this truck and a diesel equivalent, and lead times for connection work are frequently longer than lead times for the vehicle. None of that appears in this listing, and none of it is the distributor's problem to guess — it is yours to establish.

"Budget the charger and the grid connection before you budget the truck. One of those two lines will be the reason the project slips."

Payload: what 423 kWh costs you at the weighbridge

This is the number worth taking to your operations meeting. Kerb weight is 19.3 tonnes against a total of 31 tonnes, leaving roughly 11.7 tonnes of payload — noticeably less than a comparable diesel 8x4 dumper, because the battery lives in the chassis and its mass never leaves the truck. If you are paid by the tonne, compare 11.7 tonnes directly against your current diesel fleet and see how many extra trips a day that implies.

The body is sensibly matched to that reality: 5.6 x 2.35 x 1.5 m, which for dense material such as spoil or construction waste reaches the payload limit at roughly the same time as the box fills. Which means the choice depends on how you are paid. Paid by volume with light material, the box fills long before you reach 11.7 tonnes and you are effectively running half-empty trips. Paid by weight with dense material, the box and the rating are well paired.

Where electric genuinely wins here

Two use cases jump out from the declared roles. The first is municipal refuse work, where routes are fixed, distances are known, cycles repeat, and the duty is almost entirely stop-start — precisely the pattern where regeneration recovers energy and where a six-speed automatic removes much of the driver effort. The second is closed or semi-closed sites: a quarry with a fixed stockpile run, a demolition site feeding a processing yard, an underground-adjacent haul. Both are electrification-ready in a way general contracting is not.

Beyond that, no running-cost calculation can be presented honestly from this record. We have no electricity tariff for your site, no consumption data, no service-cost comparison and no battery-degradation curve, so any claim about payback would be invented. Model it yourself with your own electricity price against your own diesel price, and include the charger capital cost and a realistic assumption about residual value — for electric trucks, that last figure is genuinely uncertain and varies widely by market.

What this record does not say

Important gaps, none of which we will fill: no battery warranty term or cycle-life guarantee is published, and no state-of-health or degradation commitment appears; no motor manufacturer is named, only the battery brand CATL; no battery chemistry, no IP rating for the pack, no thermal management description; no charging power rating, only the two-hour figure; no tipping hydraulic specification or body material; no service interval; and no parts lead time. Driver licence categories are listed as A1, A2, B2. No sales country is recorded for this model, so shipping, homologation and left- or right-hand-drive availability all need confirming for your market on the iBlue 8x4 electric dumper before any deposit moves.

Questions buyers ask before signing

Is 286 km CLTC range enough for a working day?

The 286 km figure is a CLTC rating measured under test conditions, so treat it as an upper bound rather than a guaranteed shift. Loaded dump cycles with frequent stops, tipping and climbing consume far more than the test cycle, and effective daily radius will be lower. The 423 kWh pack suits fixed, repeatable routes — quarry to stockpile, or waste transfer runs — where distance is known in advance. Share your round-trip distance and gradient and assess whether mid-shift charging is needed.

What charger does the 2-hour charging time need?

Two hours assumes a high-power DC supply; real time depends on the charger you install and on site temperature, so check it against your depot plan before purchase. With 423 kWh aboard, a charger sized for a full overnight window will generally cover single-shift operation, while double-shift running usually needs daytime opportunity charging. Review your available grid capacity and duty cycle, then specify the charging configuration.

How much payload does the 423 kWh battery cost?

Kerb weight is 19.3 tonnes against a 31-tonne gross, leaving roughly 11.7 tonnes of payload — noticeably less than a comparable diesel 8x4 dumper, because the battery is carried in the chassis. The 5.6 x 2.35 x 1.5 m box is well matched to that payload for dense material such as spoil or construction waste. If you are paid by volume with light material, the box fills before you reach the weight limit; if paid by tonne, compare 11.7 tonnes with your current diesel fleet.

What must go into the contract rather than the brochure?

Battery warranty with a stated term and a retained-capacity guarantee; the charger rating needed to achieve the quoted two hours, in writing; who maintains the high-voltage system and at what response time; and the homologation documentation for your market, particularly given that no sales country is recorded here.