Dive summary:
- This fall the Chicago's Bureau of Sanitation will receive a new fleet of the first full-scale all-electric rear-loading garbage trucks.
- The city will buy up to 20 trucks for a total cost of $13.4 million or $670,000 per truck.
- Electric vehicles are well suited for garbage collection, thanks to their low average speed, extended start and stop cycles and 60-mile range on a full charge.
From the article:
The truck will have a range of more than 60 miles on a full charge, which can be achieved overnight. Castelaz said Motiv Power Systems installed its systems on buses, but this is the first application on a garbage truck. For a typical medium duty truck, fuel costs typically get cut from 80 cents per mile with regular diesel to 10 cents per mile for electricity. That 8-to-1 ratio will be roughly similar for garbage trucks, he said.
"The nice thing about electric is there's no idling, so when you're stopped, you are not using any power other than what you are using to power the trash compactor," Castelaz said.
The system will work on regenerative braking, meaning when the driver hits the brakes, it helps to recharge the battery. The compactor will run on a different battery system than the truck's engine. ...
