Motiv Power Systems Deploying 2 All-Electric Garbage Trucks In Los Angeles

October 21st, 2017 by James Ayre

As part of an ongoing demonstration project being funded by the California Energy Commission, Motiv Power Systems will be deploying a further 2 all-electric, zero-emissions garbage trucks in the City of Los Angeles.

This news follows the earlier deployment of California’s first all-electric refuse/garbage vehicle (ERV) in Sacramento.

The trucks headed to Los Angeles will reportedly possess a payload capacity of 9 tons and 1,000 pounds per cubic yard of compaction, and will be outfitted with battery packs of up to 212 kilowatt-hours (kWh) in size, enough to last through the work day.

Considering the great potential for all-electric garbage trucks when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution reductions — their start-stop operations and heavy weights make them ideal vehicles for regenerative braking — the news is notable. There are perhaps no other operations out there where electric vehicles stand to do so much good as with regard to garbage trucks.

“Fossil-fueled garbage trucks emit about 20 times the carbon of the average US home. They achieve just two to three miles per gallon, and stick to standard routes, making them ideal electrification targets for LA’s sustainability program,” explained Motiv CEO Jim Castelaz. “We’re proud that our all-electric refuse trucks will help the city achieve its cleaner air goals, as well as save on operational and maintenance costs.”

A press release from Motiv provides more: “These Class-8 ERVs use the Motiv All-Electric Powertrain to drive a Crane Carrier chassis, with an automated side-loader body built by Amrep, Inc. The trucks will be built by Amrep, Inc in Los Angeles and are projected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2018. The City of Los Angeles Sanitation plans to run the ERVs on residential and recycling routes and expects to save as much as 6,000 gallons of fuel per year. Upon delivery, the Los Angeles ERVs bring the all-electric refuse trucks powered by Motiv to a total of three in California and four within North America.”

The situation elsewhere in the world, though, is quite a bit different — with deployments in China now apparently taking place at a rapid pace, owing to the need to deal with the country’s extreme and growing air pollution problems.

As a bit of further background here, Motiv’s All-Electric Powertrain is based around a modular design that allows it be utilized in the full extent of a city’s fleet range (from Class 4 to Class 8 vehicles). This approach (a single electric powertrain system) allows, in addition to easy deployment, a simpler fleet maintenance and operations schedule, as all the systems are essentially using the same parts and rely on the same training programs.











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