The electrification of construction machinery is an inevitable development trend due to strengthened restrictions on greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions from construction machinery. However, the widespread adoption of pure electric construction machinery is still in its infancy and faces numerous challenges. This paper introduces the latest significant contributions in the electrification of construction machinery, encompassing three dimensions: mechanical components, control strategies, and typical machines, and discusses the gaps and requirements of massive electrification in different dimensions. Lastly, the broad prospects and vast challenges of the widespread adoption of pure electric construction machinery are predicted and discussed. Additionally, the technical routes for the different type's construction machinery are analyzed, and the initiatives to promote electrification are put forward from the aspects of mechanical components, control strategies and application scenarios/business models. •Construction machinery application scenario and mechanical structure characteristics.•Configuration of typical mechanical components in electric construction machinery.•Summarized various control strategies for construction machinery.•Typical commercial products of pure electric construction machinery.•Proposed different technical routes for pure electric engineering machinery.