Real-World Data Shows Electric Heavy Equipment Slashing Job Site Fuel Costs by Over 87%

For fleet managers weighing the higher sticker price of battery-powered heavy machinery against the promise of long-term savings, the debate has often been theoretical. But a Canadian company’s multi-year pilot is putting hard numbers behind the argument, and the results are difficult to dismiss.

Groupe Bellemare, a Canadian firm working in abrasives and minerals, began running battery-electric heavy equipment on active job sites back in 2024 as part of a three-year initiative called Plug-In Fleet Heavy Equipment, developed in partnership with the Institut du véhicule innovant (IVI). Over roughly 15,000 hours of operation, the company reports spending under $54,000 on electricity sourced from Hydro-Québec's sustainably produced grid supply. The diesel machines those electric units replaced would have consumed an estimated $423,000 worth of fuel over the same period — a fuel cost reduction exceeding 87%.

Jason Lagacé, Bellemare’s operations manager, described the experience bluntly: operating costs have been “almost nil,” and the findings have been eye-opening for the company. Bellemare currently runs heavy wheel loaders and excavators from Chinese equipment manufacturer LiuGong, and intends to keep expanding its electric fleet within the abrasives and minerals division well beyond the pilot’s scheduled conclusion in 2028.

The job site results echo separate findings from Transport Canada, which calculated savings of roughly $160,000 per truck in a pilot involving the Freightliner eCascadia, a vehicle priced at about $560,000 CAD. That math has drawn attention given the arrival of the production Tesla Semi at a much lower price point of around $290,000 USD — a vehicle promising longer range, quicker charging, and reduced downtime, all of which would push per-truck savings even higher. Cost comparisons drawn from 2024-25 pilot programs run by Martin Brower and Canadian grocer Loblaw, covering roughly 200,000 kilometers, offer further backing for the electrification case in commercial fleets.

These figures stand in sharp contrast to skeptical coverage from some mainstream financial outlets, which have repeatedly suggested that electric heavy equipment struggles to compete economically even against diesel priced at $8 per gallon. The documented operating data from Bellemare and Transport Canada suggests the opposite conclusion: when fuel and maintenance costs are tallied over thousands of hours of real use, the upfront premium on electric machinery is recovered many times over. For fleet operators still on the fence, the growing pile of pilot data makes the financial case increasingly concrete.