Los Angeles to add two electric garbage trucks

Motiv Power Systems, Foster City, California, is deploying two zero-emission refuse trucks to the city of Los Angeles. The announcement follows earlier news that California’s first electric refuse vehicle (ERV) would be heading to Sacramento.

As a continuation of a demonstration project funded by the California Energy Commission, these Class-8 ERVs use the Motiv all-electric powertrain to drive a Tulsa, Oklahoma, Crane Carrier chassis, with an automated side-loader body built by Amrep Inc., Ontario, California. Amrep will build the trucks in Los Angeles. They are projected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2018.

The city of Los Angeles Sanitation plans to run the ERVs on residential trash and recycling routes and expects to save as much as 6,000 gallons of fuel per year.

Upon delivery, Motiv will have a total of three electric trucks operating in California and four within North America.

“Fossil-fueled garbage trucks emit about 20 times the carbon of the average U.S. 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,” says 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.”

As Los Angeles develops pathways to meet an 80 percent greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction by 2050, reducing air pollution from mobile sources plays a key role. Motiv’s scalable electric powertrain can help public works and city service vehicles contribute to GHG reductions by reducing diesel emissions from a wide variety of vehicles, from refuse and work trucks to school and shuttle buses, the company says.

Rather than having customized vehicles provided by a variety of vendors, Motiv’s modular design allows the same powertrain to be used across the full range of a city’s work trucks, from Class 4 through Class 8. The use of a single electric powertrain system for all the city’s electric work trucks simplifies the maintenance and operation of a growing municipal electric vehicle fleet, reducing the cost of spare parts and training, the company says. This enables cities like Los Angeles to expand their carbon reduction efforts through electrification of work trucks, transit buses and other diesel vehicles without placing a heavy maintenance burden on their public works departments.

The Los Angeles trucks will have a payload capacity of 9 tons and 1,000 pounds per cubic yard of compaction. All Motiv ERVs are equipped with 10 battery packs, expandable to 12 packs if needed for future route expansion. With up to 212 kilowatt hours of power, the Motiv ERVs supply enough electricity to efficiently move the truck and power the electric hydraulics throughout the day, the company says. Using the Motiv universal high-power charger, the ERV batteries can be fully charged overnight.

Two all-electric Type-C school buses have been placed on routes in neighboring San Bernardino County at the Colton Joint Unified School District. California’s first electric refuse truck will be placed into service in Sacramento, all powered by Motiv’s electric powertrain.