The Tiger Li-Ion electric baggage tug is quietly revolutionizing the airport ground handling and ground support equipment (GSE) market with silent, emission-free running, massive fuel savings, and a 60,000 lb. (!) payload capacity.
Despite their fun, approachable appearance, airport baggage tugs are seriously capable machines, geared down to produce the sort of immense torque necessary to haul literal tons of luggage (or airplanes) from terminal to tarmac hundreds of times a day on duty cycles that would trash your neighbor’s “tough guy” pickup in under a month.
That amount of work requires huge amounts of energy and, as a consequence, huge amounts of fuel. But, while diesel prices are surging unpredictably, electric fuel has proven to be significantly less expensive and more predictable, leading Tiger’s parent company, Waev, to claim that its electric Li-Ion tug will save fleet operators more than $19,000 per year in fuel alone. Per tug.
Tiger math
The electric tug will also save more than 3.5 tons of carbon emissions per year – a big swing at airports that employ dozens or hundreds of these things. For their part, Waev executives absolutely get it.
“The future of GSE is electric,” explained Waev president and CEO Keith Simon, at the Tiger Li-Ion’s launch in 2022. “Electric makes sense – for the work, for safety, and for the environment. As airports and operators are prioritizing sustainability, carbon-neutral, and net-zero solutions like never before, we are bringing high performance, trusted solutions that enable this.”
The Tiger Li-Ion tow tractor offers up to 60 miles of range from its 48 kWh battery pack. That’s more than enough to cover a day of operation at all but the biggest and busiest airports, and when the batteries run low, Tiger’s tugs keep charging simple by designing the tug to work with a facility’s existing 120V electrical infrastructure, or on a 240V, 50-amp L2 charger where available.
Tiger’s electric baggage tug ships with a number of industry-standard safety features, including anti-rollover technology that automatically reduces speed through tight turns, programmable speed controls that can be set to 10, 12, or 15 mph, and an automatic brake interlock to prevent unintended acceleration. An operator sensor cuts drive power if the driver leaves the seat, while high-visibility LED lighting ensures tractor stays visible in low-light scenarios.
You can check out Tiger’s recently released Li-Ion overview video, below, then let us know what you think of the ongoing electrification of America’s airports in the comments.
Tiger Li-Ion tractor overview
SOURCE | IMAGES: Tiger GSE.
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