This report concerns the German market for mini excavators capable of being turned through 360 degrees. The machines may be mounted on wheels or tracks, but the great majority are on rubber tracks, and range in size from 0.8 tonnes to 6 tonnes. The industry considers machines below 1 tonne to be micro excavators, whilst units in the 6 to 11 tonne categories are commonly referred to as midi excavators. Although they form the top of certain suppliers’ ranges, they are excluded from this report.

The mini excavators of today are a development of Japanese machines first brought to Europe in the late 1970s. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the European market expanded enormously and reached 70,000 units in 2007. Regional demand subsequently collapsed to fewer than 30,000 machines in 2009 in the wake of the global financial crisis, although has risen sharply during the last 10 years to reach 81,000 units in 2021, the highest level of sales ever recorded. Germany is the largest mini excavator market in Europe and accounts for around 25 per cent of overall demand.

The importance of the mini excavator in confined inner-city jobsites or landscaping projects dictate that zero tail swing models, which are able to swivel within the width of their own tracks, now feature widely in all manufacturers’ product ranges. Conversely, acceptance of electric machines has hitherto been slow, due primarily to concerns about cost and availability of on-site charging infrastructure.

This report is an update of Off-Highway Research’s last study published in 2018 and examines the changes that have taken place since then. The findings are based on information collected during an extensive interview programme in Germany undertaken in April 2022 with the sole manufacturer and leading importers.