Date: 2024-12-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00021419
TRUCKS
HEAVY DUTY ELECTRIC TRUCKS
Mack Trucks starts production of heavy electric trucks
HEAVY DUTY ELECTRIC TRUCKS
Mack Trucks starts production of heavy electric trucks
Original article: https://www.electrive.com/2021/12/21/mack-trucks-starts-production-of-heavy-electric-trucks/
Burgess COMMENTARY
This is good news. The New York sanitation truck works in a 'stop-and-go' mode most of the day, every day. This works for a battery powered EV and it is good to see New YOrk City embracing the product.
When I was very young during WWII, we lived in a close-in suburb of London. I remember that milk was delivered using a battery powered EV, and the fashionable department store Harrods used battery powered electric vehicles to deliver furniture to its upscale clients. Petrol (gasoline) was not available for these activities during the war, being totally committed to military purposes and in very short supply.
The New York City sanitation truck has a unique design with very low driving cab floor to facilitate easy operation for many hours a day. I believe this design originated with Prefessor Hassan El-Baroudi when he was undertaking a consulting assignment for the NYC Department of Sanitation in the 1970s. Hassan was a neighbor and good friend in Montclair, NJ who also facilitated my working as a consultant in the Fisheries Section of the Kuwait Institute of Scientific Research (KISR) in the early 1980s.
Peter Burgess
Author: Chris Randall
Dec 21, 2021 - 12:04 pm
The US commercial vehicle manufacturer Mack Trucks, part of the Volvo Group, has started series production of its first all-electric heavy-duty truck at its plant in Macungie, Pennsylvania. The first orders have been placed since June.
The Mack LR Electric, with a gross vehicle weight of 66,000 pounds (30 tonnes) and a payload of 11.5 tonnes, is powered by two electric motors that together deliver 334 kW of continuous and 400 kW of peak power and has four battery packs with NMC cells that can be charged at up to 150 kW. There are no details on battery capacity, but the range is said to be up to 70 “on-the-job miles”, the equivalent of 112 kilometres.
In this case, it is not easy to give a realistic range: Mack states that the batteries supply energy not only to the drive, but also to other auxiliary consumers that are operated via circuits with 12, 24 or 600 volts. This means that the partly energy-intensive auxiliary consumers have a great influence on the actual range. Added to this is the changing load.
To increase efficiency, the Mack LR Electric has a regenerative braking system. Recuperation can be selected in three stages. Mack’s vehicles are often used in waste disposal, where many regular stops are part of the driving profile – and recuperation brings significantly more benefits than in a long-distance truck.
“Mack has long been a leader in the refuse segment, and we couldn’t be more pleased to now be producing Mack LR Electric vehicles to help our customers meet their sustainability goals,” said Jonathan Randall, senior vice president of sales and at Mack Trucks. “Customer response to the LR Electric has been overwhelmingly positive, and we look forward to putting more into fleet operations now that we are in production.”
The New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) has had a pre-production vehicle in test operation since September 2020. Then in June, it was announced that DSNY plans to purchase seven Mack LR Electric refuse trucks. Another demonstration vehicle is in operation at the waste disposal company Republic Services in Hickory, North Carolina.
macktrucks.com (announcement), macktrucks.com (technical specifications)
Author: Chris Randall