The headline isn’t a misprint. Komatsu, a century-old global manufacturer of heavy equipment, has unveiled an autonomous electric underwater bulldozer.

The company showed off a fully-functional prototype at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show.

The futuristic bulldozer has a battery capacity of 450 kWh and a four-hour charging time. The battery’s capacity can be increased to 500 kWh, which would give the underwater EV a running time of up to six hours.

The prototype has a diving limitation of 23 feet (7 m) because of GPS limitations; however, Komatsu said it will soon increase the operational depth to 164 feet (50 m). The new electric bulldozer is far from being Komatsu’s first underwater bulldozer—it introduced a conventionally-powered version back in 1970.

“Developing a bulldozer that was used on land and using it underwater, in a sense, was an extraordinary challenge,” said Shuu Komatsu, Team Manager of the Komatsu Hydraulic Excavator-Bulldozer Development Group. “I think it is amazing that our predecessors at Komatsu developed this more than 50 years ago, and it is still in service. I don’t think there is any other construction equipment like it.”

The new electric underwater bulldozer is suitable for everyday construction tasks such as coastal projects to mitigate storm surge damage. It can also be deployed to maintain rivers and coastlines, including for use in river dredging to enable harbor navigation and minimize flooding, as well as in ecosystem restoration efforts.

The bulldozer can be operated remotely without requiring significant operator training, ensuring that operators do not have to hold their breath while 164 feet below the surface.

Source: Komatsu