'Replacing our older, fossil fuel dependent bus and garbage truck with electric vehicles is yet another step we're taking to achieve the goals of our Climate Action Plan,' said Mayor Bhalla. The new garbage truck and bus will bring the City to a total of 19 electric or hybrid vehicles and will provide significant cost and environmental benefits as part of Hoboken's Climate Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Bhalla and the City of Hoboken today announced that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) is providing nearly $1.2 million in State funding for the purchase of the City's first electric garbage truck and HOP shuttle bus. Needless to say, we’ve got a long ways to go to make the garbage truck market 100% zero emissions, but there are a few key players that have been popping up - Motiv Power and BYD more frequently in years past, and Lion Electric and Mack Trucks more recently.Mayor Ravi S. (It’s not clear if that meant overall, or just meant the 9th and 10th electric refuse trucks from BYD, but I presume it means the latter.) BYD said at the time that these were just the 9th and 10th electric garbage trucks in the USA. Jumping to 2021, BYD sold two electric refuse trucks to J&M Sanitation in Idaho earlier this year. Lion Electric and Boivin Evolution started selling electric garbage trucks in 2020. Motiv Power sold a couple of electric garbage trucks of its own to Los Angeles in 2017, after launching its first electric garbage truck way back in 2013. BYD and Beijing Environmental Sanitation Engineering Group launched an electric garbage truck in China back in 2016 and BYD sold one to Palo Alto and GreenWaste in 2017. While we haven’t had a ton of electric garbage truck stories to celebrate over the years, there have been a few. Photo courtesy of Mack Trucks Electric Garbage Truck News Of Yesteryear “Since then, DSNY has been evaluating payload capacity, regenerative braking, overall vehicle performance in their demanding operations, operating range and charging requirements.” The Mack LR Electric “DSNY took delivery of its first fully electric refuse vehicle, a Mack LR Electric demonstration model, in September 2020, when it began rigorous real-world testing in Brooklyn,” Volvo group tells us. “The Mack LR Electric demonstrator is performing well, and we look forward to when we have one in each of our city’s zones.”

“We look forward to our continued partnership with Mack Trucks in striving toward our environmental efforts to benefit the citizens of New York City,” said DSNY Commissioner Edward Grayson. Of course, more than 7 refuse trucks cover the streets of New York every day, so I hope the city will buy 70 more before too long, or 700 more, or 6,000 (which is its total fleet size), but at least it’s getting its foot in the door. The trucks will be collecting refuse in the Bronx, Brooklyn North, Brooklyn South, Manhattan, Queens East, Queens West, and Staten Island. Which lucky boroughs of NYC will benefit from these quiet, zero-emission, electric refuse trucks? All of them. In particular, they are the LR Electric model. The good news this month is that the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) is going to order 7 electric garbage trucks from Mack Trucks, a subsidiary of Volvo Group.

Unfortunately, you don’t see many orders for electric garbage trucks yet, and certainly not big orders. There isn’t the problem of drag quickly draining the battery on the highway because, for the most part, garbage trucks don’t hit the highway (even if many highways are littered with trash due to the “polite and respectful” nature of many humans). The noise and pollution of the trucks don’t wake people up 30 minutes before their alarms. Some of the electricity is recovered via regen braking in the middle of the short trips from neighbor to neighbor. The stop-start nature of garbage trucks is almost custom-made for EVs - no burning fuel as garbage trucks sit in front of one house after another lifting up garbage cans. Garbage trucks run regular, predictable routes, meaning required range is straightforward and clear. It’s one of those vehicle sectors that seems tailor made for a quick electric transformation.

Electric garbage truck