Tired of being awoken by noisy garbage trucks rumbling down your street in the early hours? It could soon become a thing of the past as truck manufacturers introduce new, quiet-running electric garbage trucks.
Volvo Trucks was one of the first with its electric FL series launched in 2018. Now Mack Trucks, a subsidiary of Volvo Trucks, has launched its own electric garbage truck with the Electric LR series.
Unveiled last week at a sanitation trade show in Las Vegas, the Mack Electric LR is still a prototype so a full list of specs hasn't been announced but we know there will be two electric motors delivering about 349 horsepower of continuous power and 496 hp of peak power. A total of four lithium-ion batteries with a 600-volt rating will power the electric motors, though we don't know how much capacity they will have and what kind of range they will deliver.
Mack boasts that the truck doesn't require oil changes and aftertreatment systems like conventional diesel-powered trucks, so operators could save on costs and have the trucks on the roads for longer. The company also says the quieter operation of the truck means they could potentially be allowed to run at night as well.
One of the first places you might see the Mack Electric LR in service is in New York City, which is looking to become carbon neutral by 2050. We also could imagine electric school buses operating in the city. Of course, battery-electric power isn't the only option for zero-emission propulsion. Rival truck manufacturer Kenworth has teamed up with Toyota to develop a hydrogen fuel cell-electric truck. The two firms announced in April that they'll build 10 of the hydrogen-powered trucks to haul goods at Los Angeles ports.
