The Kubota KX series is the company’s line of mini excavators, the small tracked diggers that made Kubota one of the largest builders of compact construction equipment. The company states that its mini backhoes have held the largest share of the world market for 21 consecutive years.
Kubota KX series at a glance
| Maker | Kubota Corporation, Osaka, Japan |
|---|---|
| Line | mini excavators, the KX series |
| Market position | Kubota’s mini backhoes have led the world market for 21 years in a row |
| Japanese plant | Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture, where the mini excavators are built |
| German plant | Zweibrücken, completed in 1989, building mini excavators |
| Other compact equipment | compact track loaders, skid-steer loaders and wheel loaders |
| Start in construction | excavators, from 1953 |
| Engines | Kubota’s own diesel range |
| Models in this collection | KX 71-3, KX 016-4 and KX 018-4 |
There is no Wikipedia article for the KX series. This page uses the Kubota company articles, which describe the construction machinery business but give no specifications for individual excavators.
History of the Kubota KX series
From foundry to construction plant
Kubota began in 1890 as an iron foundry and spent its first decades on cast-iron water pipes, farm engines and, from 1919, a short-lived motor vehicle business that grew into DAT Jidōsha Seizō and eventually Datsun. Construction machinery came in 1953, when the company, by then listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and known as Kubota Tekkō, began building excavators alongside its agricultural machines.
Mini excavators in two countries
Kubota builds its mini excavators in Japan at Hirakata in Osaka Prefecture, one of a string of plants that also includes Sakai, Hyōgo, Chiba, Shiga, Ibaraki, Odawara and Tochigi. In Europe the machines come from Zweibrücken in Germany, a plant completed in 1989 that is the centre of Kubota’s construction machinery business on the continent; wheel loaders were added there later. Outside Japan the group also produces in Wuxi in China and in Thailand, where tractors and combine harvesters are made, while its German sites at Rodgau and Zweibrücken cover engines, tractors and municipal machines on one side and construction equipment on the other.
The KX line
The KX is the name Kubota gives its mini excavator family, and the machines in this collection, the KX 71-3, the KX 016-4 and the KX 018-4, come from across its range. Kubota describes the mini backhoe as its strongest product outside agriculture: the company has led the world market in the class for 21 years in a row, and alongside the diggers it builds compact track loaders, skid-steer loaders and wheel loaders. The same in-house diesel engines that power its tractors are used in the construction range, which keeps the group’s engine plant at the centre of both businesses.
Design and features
- Compact size: the KX machines are mini excavators, the class Kubota has specialised in since it entered construction machinery.
- World market leadership: Kubota states that its mini backhoes have held the largest share of the world market for 21 consecutive years.
- Built in Japan and Germany: the excavators come from Hirakata in Osaka Prefecture and from Zweibrücken in Germany, a plant completed in 1989.
- Kubota diesel engines: the group builds its own engines, from single-cylinder units to straight-six turbocharged diesels, and uses them across tractors and construction machinery.
- A wider compact range: beside the excavators Kubota builds compact track loaders, skid-steer loaders and wheel loaders.
Kubota KX series versions
- KX 71-3: the mini excavator shown in the photograph on this page.
- KX 016-4: a smaller machine of the same line.
- KX 018-4: another compact model of the KX family.
- Other compact equipment: compact track loaders, skid-steer loaders and wheel loaders from the same construction range.
Kubota’s other machines are in the L series tractors, the B series and the Kubota diesel engines article, and the whole range is in the Kubota collection.
Sources
- Kubota, English Wikipedia: company profile and engine range
- Kubota (Unternehmen), German Wikipedia: Hirakata and Zweibrücken plants, construction machinery
- Kubota, Japanese Wikipedia: mini backhoe market share, product groups
- Kubota, French Wikipedia: early history
