Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 10

Jersey City, N.J., took delivery in November
of the first of five battery-electric garbage
trucks produced by BYD.
HOW'S THIS FOR AN
ELECTRIC PICKUP?
Trash trucks and school buses: The non-sexy EV revolution is coming
BY SEBASTIAN BLANCO
A
s the stock market swoons over
electric vehicle companies such
as Tesla and Lucid, another EV
revolution is about to change
the way America works. This one, though,
is unlikely to ever become a trending topic
on Twitter.
Electric work vehicles, including refuse
trucks and buses, have started reaching
streets across the country.
One of the places where electric work
vehicles are already in service is New York
City. The Department of Sanitation started
using an electric street sweeper in May
and has been testing a 72,000-pound electric
refuse truck since November 2020.
10 shift * december 2021
That truck, a Mack LR Electric, was first
shown as a prototype at WasteExpo 2018,
and serial production is scheduled to start
at Mack's Lehigh Valley Operations facility
in Pennsylvania before the end of the year.
" It's been in service for a year and
it's been flawless, " said Rocky DiRico,
Department of Sanitation deputy commissioner
for support services.
The truck picks up and compacts around
12 to 13 tons of garbage per shift and has
been tested on routes all around the city.
There are seven sanitation zones in New
York City, and because the EV test has
been so successful, the city has ordered
seven more electric trucks - one for each
zone - that will go into service at the end
of 2022. New York City plans to order
seven more after that.
" That would put two in each zone, "
DiRico said. " If they all perform as well as
the first one, then we would apply some
serious numbers. "
GROWING THE FLEET
Serious numbers would give Mack
plenty to do in the coming years. New
York City's sanitation department uses
about 6,000 vehicles throughout the city,
and the majority today are diesel Mack
trucks. It will take time to replace them
all with EVs, though, because of how
long it takes to build them and the price
tag. A typical refuse collection truck costs
about $340,000 while an electric version
is closer to $550,000, DiRico said. But,
Shift Magazine - December 2021

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