Who this is for: OEM engineers and integration leads planning or mid-way through a diesel-to-electric conversion on off-highway equipment.
What you'll learn: Five practical lessons about system integration, drawn from a real electrification project of a 96 V reference platform, designed to mirror the incomplete-information conditions most teams face.
Every electrification project often starts with gaps. Legacy platforms with incomplete drawings. Gearbox specs that were never digitized. Supplier components documented in formats no one on your team can open. If you've tried to build a full vehicle architecture from partial information, you already know that the integration challenge isn't the motor swap, it's everything you can't find in a file. We built this project around that reality. Starting with only a physical compact dumper, no CAD files, no gearbox specs, no performance documentation, we engineered a complete electrified solution using the same constrained-information conditions most OEM teams navigate daily. The experience reinforced five lessons about electrifying off-highway equipment that apply whether you're working from a full digital twin or a laser scan and a tape measure.
Electrification cannot be accomplished via ‘one-to-one’ swaps. Converting a diesel machine to electric means replacing and integrating the entire powertrain, not just the engine. The internal combustion engine (ICE) gives way to an electric motor. Fuel storage and delivery become a battery and inverter and in many cases, a multi-speed transmission is replaced by a single-speed gearbox.
However, it’s also reductive to simplify these conversion projects to the exchange of electric and ICE powertrains. This 96 V DC system architecture required:
As every off-highway or on-road EV comprises one fully integrated system of systems and components, electrification projects have to treat every subsystem as interdependent, not as a parts swap. This includes replacing or integrating vehicle controllers, controls, sensors, thermal management, telematics, data communications networks, auxiliary power, and more.
OEMs typically source systems and components from multiple suppliers. When those suppliers don’t collaborate closely, integration problems follow. We deliberately addressed this real-world challenge through our core project objectives: engineering a complete vehicle architecture that incorporates technologies from both within and outside the ZAPI GROUP ecosystem.
Another core objective was making sure motors, inverters, battery systems, vehicle controllers and operator controls all communicate without conflict. Integrating the compact dumper’s CAN bus communication network became one of the project’s most critical processes, particularly for supporting diagnostics, derating strategies, and system coordination.
By navigating system integration challenges and achieving our core objectives, we demonstrated that successful electrification depends not on individual components, but on how effectively those components work together as a complete system.
The project began without drawings, CAD models, gearbox specifications, performance documentation or manufacturer support. Not as a stunt, but because that's how most electrification projects actually start. Platforms change hands, documentation lags behind physical modifications, and important knowledge leaves with personnel. Completing a vehicle architecture from that starting point takes real integration expertise. The more important point is that it forces a deeper understanding of the machine than any spec sheet can provide.
Because knowing how a machine operates isn’t enough to electrify it, we also needed to understand the original design and engineering choices, as well as the machine’s real-world duty cycles and operating environments. Our goal wasn’t limited to understanding the machine; it included minimizing the modifications required for electrification while maintaining or improving the original compact dumper’s performance.
We began by laser scanning the machine’s chassis, frame, and external bodywork, then dismantled the existing systems for detailed study. For example, determining gear ratios required physically opening and inspecting the gearbox to measure and analyze the gears directly.
The next phase involved real-world testing to inform the project with genuine field data rather than relying on theoretical assumptions. The assessment comprised multiple representative tests intended to further understand machine performance, vehicle limitations, operating characteristics, and duty cycle requirements. The findings from this reverse-engineering and testing phase guided every major design decision during the electrification project, which continually reinforced a simple lesson: before selecting batteries, motors, or software, it is essential to understand how a machine actually works.
Further supplementing our understanding of the compact dumper, its duty cycles and its operating environments, we also analyzed simulations of the original diesel-powered machine’s performance. Leveraging our existing expertise in diesel integration, we extensively evaluated engine performance, duty cycles, energy consumption, and vehicle behavior from a digital model developed in MATLAB Simulink.
The data gathered from simulations enabled us to thoroughly assess battery-sizing requirements, range expectations, different electric motors and packaging constraints. We also used this modeling process to compare the existing diesel configuration against potential electric architectures before hardware integration began. By minimizing the reconfigurations needed to fit new systems and components on-board, we reduced the risk of setback-imposing redesigns, simplified conversion, and helped facilitate potential scaling opportunities.
Reverse engineering and real-world testing come first. But simulations are just as important for determining overall system architecture. They help us understand performance demands across different usage scenarios, while shortening timelines and keeping costs down.
Before building or putting a prototype through real-world testing, we calculated estimates for energy consumption, vehicle efficiency, total cost of ownership (TCO) and expected operating range. Throughout the project, we used the vehicle data measured during real-world testing to continually refine the simulations and improve our confidence in the models.
Simulations reduce the chance of discovering a fundamental architecture problem during physical testing. They also force you to justify design choices with operating data rather than assumptions.
Once we determined the project’s systems, components and their integrations, we set a higher benchmark by electrifying the dumper without significantly altering its external appearance. While this goal was more flexible than the core objectives, we always intended to prevent changes to the machine's envelope to minimize project timelines and costs. That required extensive packaging and mechanical integration work. We designed and manufactured mounting systems, brackets, shafts, and mechanical interfaces to fit the electric components into the original envelope.
We began electrification with the removal of the diesel engine, radiator, muffler and associated systems. Next, we determined battery placement within the remaining space, which is crucial for the many off-highway ICE vehicles requiring counterweights. Removing the original engine upsets the machine’s balance, and battery placement must help reestablish a safe weight distribution.
Notably, we retained the original machine’s mechanical transmission to minimize complexity and reduce development time. However, OEMs should evaluate whether retaining the original transmission benefits their specific application. Integrating the electric propulsion motor with the original gearbox was one of the most challenging technical tasks of the project. It required custom mechanical interfaces and detailed software torque calibration to protect drivetrain components and maintain smooth operation.
While ICE vehicles generally require multi-speed gearboxes to keep RPMs within the ideal range for maintaining peak performance (i.e., the ‘powerband’), a platform’s electrification can involve swapping to single-speed gearboxes. Electric motors produce torque linearly and more easily handle high RPMs. OEMs should weigh whether retaining the original gearbox or replacing it provides better performance, simpler conversion, and lower cost for their specific application.
With the constraint on altering the compact dumper’s external profile, the project reinforced how electrification often becomes a mechanical and packaging challenge before it becomes an electrical one.
In addition to our mechanical and electrical redesign, the compact dumper still required its software architecture, as modern electric machines depend on seamless integrations across software, electronics and vehicle systems. The software platform controls everything: inverter behavior, battery and charging management, hydraulic functions, diagnostics, fault detection, and joystick calibration. Each one depends on the others, so the platform has to be designed as a single integrated system, not a stack of independent modules.
We prioritized scalability, reusability, and compliance during the software’s design to enable easier use across future projects. ISO 13849 compliance required a functional safety approach, and fault-induction and validation procedures tested every fault condition to maximize reliability. For the communication standards responsible for system coordination and diagnostic information, we incorporated J1939 and UDS into the system architecture.
Electrification also opens the door to capabilities that weren’t possible on the diesel platform. The key is building them into the roadmap from the start, not treating them as afterthoughts. For the compact dumper, next steps will include reducing hydraulic losses and improving efficiency, controllability and precision by replacing the original hydraulic functions with electric linear actuators. Our longer-term roadmap also includes integrating autonomous driving capabilities and anti-collision systems.
Electrification is not the end state; it’s the foundation on which future machine capabilities can be built.
The project required reverse engineering, extensive testing, simulation, mechanical integration, a custom software platform, and full system validation. None of those disciplines worked in isolation. Mechanical decisions affected software calibration. Battery placement changed the thermal management strategy. CAN bus architecture shaped what diagnostics were even possible.
The real lesson was that electrification cannot be accomplished via one technology decision or component replacement. Instead, it requires combining multiple fields of expertise, such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, hydraulics, controls, software development and functional safety.
Success depends on understanding the complete machine and designing every subsystem to work together as a unified solution.
Download the case study for this project to learn more.