Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 11

grant money available from
the Volkswagen diesel
lawsuit
brings the cost of the EVs
below that for a clean-diesel
truck, DiRico said,
" Our intention is to use that
very same grant money to buy
the next seven, and the seven
after that, so the cost differential
becomes moot, " he said.
The city also is working on
installing the charging infrastructure
to handle all of these
vehicles, which will help with
more than refuse trucks. The
city passed a law that requires
all municipal vehicles to be
zero emission by 2040.
" We feel confident in
Mack's ability to build and in
our infrastructure plan to get
this done much more quickly
than 2040, " DiRico said.
MAKING THE SWITCH
Mack Trucks, part of Volvo
Group, also is testing its electric
refuse trucks with Republic
Services in North Carolina as
well as other partners that
have not made their plans public, said
Scott Barraclough, senior product manager
for e-mobility at Mack Trucks.
Any city interested in switching can
use a smartphone app with their diesel
trucks to analyze the route and determine
whether an electrified model would work
New York City's sanitation department has been testing an electric refuse truck for a year.
there. The Mack LR Electric has about a
70-mile range, but that can vary based on
how many garbage pickups it makes on a
route, since the compaction mechanism
is powered by the battery as well. The
trucks can be fully charged in about 90
minutes using a 150-kilowatt fast charger,
if needed, but most of the time that won't
be necessary.
" The duty cycle of refuse trucks really
electrification, "
lend
themselves
to
Barraclough said. " Many of the routes
are shorter and predictable, so you know
what the trucks are going to be doing.
And they're home every night, so you
know where to put the infrastructure for
charging. "
COMPETITION
Mack has competition in the electric
refuse-truck business from BYD, which
offers two models in the U.S. There's
the 8R, which roughly matches the LR
Electric's weight at 72,750 pounds, and
the smaller, 26,000-pound 6R. Battery
sizes range from 211 kilowatt-hours to 403
kWh, depending on the truck and whether
it's an extended range model.
About 20 of BYD's Class 8 refuse trucks
are in use in the U.S., said George Miller,
BYD's director of sales for national fleets
and electric trucks. J&M Sanitation in
Idaho has deployed them, as have cities
such as Palo Alto, Calif., and Seattle.
Jersey City, N.J., just took delivery of the
first of five of BYD's fully electric garbage
trucks in November.
Counting products such as delivery
vans, BYD has about 200 electric trucks,
about 80 Class 8 semi-tractors and
between 500 and 600 electric buses on
the road today, Miller said. n
Cities, districts climb aboard electric buses
M
ore than 250 school districts across the U.S. have
made commitments to at least test electric school
buses, and many of them already have e-buses in
use.
In November, New Mexico announced it would invest more
than $11 million in EV infrastructure and education programs,
including about 20 charging stations for electric city buses.
Two electric bus manufacturers, BYD and Proterra, regularly
announce new deliveries of their products in cities ranging from
Los Angeles, with more than two dozen electric city buses now in
service, to Beverly, Mass., where an electric school bus is using
vehicle-to-grid technology to support the regional electric grid.
- Sebastian Blanco
An electric school bus supports the regional grid in Beverly, Mass.
december 2021 * shift 11

Shift Magazine - December 2021

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