PEORIA, Ill. – Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) unveiled the first model in its new line of hybrid excavators, the Cat® 336E H, at its Mossville Industrial Design Center on Oct. 16 at a special trade press event, “The Next Generation is Here.” The new 336E H will be sold and serviced exclusively through the global Cat dealer network following the machine’s official launch at bauma 2013 in Munich, Germany. The order board for the Cat 336E H opens in Feb. 2013, with factory shipments beginning in March 2013.

The Cat 336E H uses a new hydraulic hybrid technology developed by Caterpillar. “A hybrid is independent of any particular technology—it doesn’t have to be electric,” said Ken Gray, global product manager for large hydraulic excavators for Caterpillar’s Excavation Division. “There are many ways to store and reuse energy, including our patented hydraulic hybrid system featured on the Cat 336E H.”

“Caterpillar has developed, built, and tested electric hybrid excavators, but—until now—we had not found a hybrid approach that would actually lower our customers’ owning and operating costs,” Gray said. “Large excavators operate in high-production applications in which fuel is a very significant operating cost for our customers. So, the 336E H, the hybrid version of our workhorse 336E, is ideal for introducing our new hydraulic hybrid technology, with its more than 300 filed patents.”

“We can’t wait to see the reaction of our customers to the 336E H,” said Gray. “We’re confident they will be delighted. No other commercially available technology has higher power density than hydraulics, and that’s why we selected a hydraulic solution to help our customers achieve substantial fuel savings. The 336E H also meets stringent Tier 4 Interim/Stage IIIB emission standards. It is extraordinarily quiet, too. So it’s a socially responsible machine for our customers to own, and they will sacrifice nothing in terms of performance, power, force, speed or production. Once more, the owning and operating costs for the 336E H are actually lower than the standard machine. That’s the value customers expect from Cat excavators.”

“The 336E H is a game-changer—the most revolutionary excavator to come to market in decades,” said Gary Stampanato, vice president of Caterpillar’s Excavation Division. “Customers aren’t going to choose the 336E H simply because it is sustainable. They will select it because it actually lowers their owning and operating costs, and maintains the performance of our industry leader, the 336E. Caterpillar has the most productive and fuel-efficient excavator product line in the industry, and our customers are supported by the best dealers in the world. The 336E H extends our leadership, is the right thing to do for our customers and is a sign of great things to come.”