Motiv Power Systems is deploying two battery-electric refuse trucks to the City of Los Angeles. 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 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.
Rather than having customized vehicles provided by a variety of vendors, Motiv’s modular design allows the same All-Electric 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.
This enables cities such as 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.
Similar to Motiv-powered electric refuse trucks on the road in Sacramento, the Los Angeles trucks will have a payload capacity of nine 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 kWh of power, the Motiv powered ERVs supply enough electricity to efficiently move the truck and power the electric hydraulics throughout the day, supporting a range between 50-80 miles, depending upon the pack size. Using the Motiv universal high power charger (480V, 50 kW), the ERV batteries will easily reach full charge overnight.
Aaron is an automotive journalist living in Wyoming, USA. His background includes technology, mechanics, commercial vehicles, and new vehicle evaluations. Aaron is a member of several automotive media groups and writes for many well-known publications.