Our first, fully-electric ‘street cleaning’ truck will join the Civic fleet in 2020, and we are excited to see it in action.
This innovative, new, heavy vehicle – Civic’s second EV truck – has the ability to pressure-wash hard surfaces with steam and ambient water, as well as pick-up and wash wheelie bins, killing pathogens and bacteria as well as eliminating bad smells. It’s quiet on the roads and it also has the ability to capture its own waste-water, reducing impact on the environment.
With the increase in separated waste collections and food waste collections, as well as the elimination of single-use plastic bags, the regular steam cleaning of waste bins has become a much greater requirement. These types of EV steam cleaning rubbish trucks are in use in Europe, but the technology is very much still in its infancy.
At 11 tonne GVM (similar in size to our first EV compactor truck), Civic’s new truck has a range of around 200km or 8 hours working time before it needs to be taken back to the charging station at our Otahuhu depot. Compared to a regular diesel rubbish truck, it saves approximately 25 tonnes CO2-e per year in carbon emissions.
The purchase of the new truck was partially funded by a governmental Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) grant, which Civic received in 2017. EECA has a dedicated Low Emission Vehicles Contestable Fund, which was established to encourage New Zealand businesses and organisations to increase the uptake of electric and low emission vehicles.
We are constantly looking at ways to make what we do more efficient and environmentally friendly, and introducing another electric vehicle to our fleet is another big step in the right direction.