Anyone reading excavator numbers this year is really reading a story about power.

Off-Highway Research published its global excavator study in September; International Rental News summarised it on 15 October. The headline figures: more than 570,000 mini, wheeled and crawler excavators were sold worldwide in 2025, with a combined retail value of around US$65 billion. Excavators now account for roughly one in every two construction machines sold — twenty years ago it was about one in three. Long-term growth stands at 4.6% a year, against 3.5% for construction equipment overall.

The passage that concerns rental

One part of the report is easy to skim past: electric excavators had lagged behind the electrification of wheeled loaders and mining trucks — but that began to change in 2026. Among the drivers, the analysis names Chinese cities restricting diesel-powered construction equipment for air quality, alongside higher oil prices.

That is not a product announcement. It is a change in the order of things: the machine goes electric first, and only then does it become obvious that the power does not come with it.

What is left on site

An electric machine needs no tank, but it does need a connection. And that connection is rarely where the work is.

This is where a second business appears for rental yards, one that did not exist before: not just the machine, but the supply.

Three questions that belong in the quote from the moment an electric machine is involved:

  • Who brings the power? Grid connection, fixed installation, or a unit that travels with the machine.
  • What hangs on it? Not the machine's rated power, but the start-up peak and the actual work cycle.
  • Who documents it? Runtime, state of charge at return, charging time. Without those three lines, any follow-up costing is guesswork.

The infrastructure question is not only a Chinese one

Worth noting is the second half of the analysis: Off-Highway Research expects faster adoption in China to drive the build-out of charging infrastructure — and says that infrastructure is what electric excavators need to gain wider acceptance globally.

For European sites that reads in reverse: as long as charging infrastructure is not everywhere, mobile supply remains the bridge. Not as a stopgap for a quarter, but as part of the rental package.

What does not follow

None of this is a forecast for Germany. The report describes the global market with a focus on China, where the share of Chinese manufacturers rose from around 6% a decade ago to 30% in 2025, while Japanese manufacturers moved from 49% to 34%. How fast European depots electrify is not in there.

What follows is a question for rental: if the machine arrives electric — does the supply arrive with it?

Sources: International Rental News, 15 October 2026 · Off-Highway Research

*All figures in this article come from reporting on the Off-Highway Research study (September 2026). The text contains no estimates or extrapolations for the European market.*