Motiv Power Systems, a Bay Area startup, recently landed a
$13.4 million contract to start electrifying
Chicago’s garbage trucks. The initiative, which will result with the conversion of 20 garbage trucks into electric vehicles (EVs) within five years, is the first major contract for the Foster City-based company.
Motiv’s value proposition is its
electric powertrain control system (ePCS), which the company describes as a modular “
operating system” that permits builders and owners of medium- and large-sized crops to use a common system to retrofit trucks of various sizes and weights. The result is a hardware and software
platform that allows for the conversion of diesel- or gasoline-hogging
heavy vehicles into EVs without steeply priced redesigns. Motiv ships its battery kits to truck chassis manufacturers, who then install the battery systems where gasoline or diesel engines would otherwise be plunked instead. So far Motiv has found success with shuttle buses, a stepping stone to this new conversion of garbage trucks in America’s third largest city.
According to the
San Francisco Business Times, the cost of the trucks with the new battery technology systems will initially be double those powered by conventional engines. Motiv, however, insists that the payback time will be as short as four years.
The trucks will have a minimum of 10 battery packs that will provide a capacity of 200 kilowatt hours of power storage that in turn will provide up to 60 miles of range per charge. The City of Chicago, meanwhile, will benefit in the long run from reduced fuel costs. The city will convert a total of 20 garbage trucks.
Companies developing
EV technologies similar to that of Motiv’s have plenty of long term business opportunities with fleets such as Chicago’s garbage trucks. Garbage trucks, especially in more densely populated areas, travel short distances day to day, yet their weight and constant idling is the source of wasted fuel as well as emissions. Considering the fact that garbage trucks generally rarely need to move fast--yet can benefit from the torque that is one key advantage of electric drive trains--fleets are a compelling solution for such technologies to scale because the trucks can simply return to a central location to recharge overnight. With interest in
electric buses and trucks on the upswing, look for large companies, and municipalities, to experiment with EVs even more frequently as conventional fuel prices continue to remain high.
Published earlier today on Triple Pundit. You can follow Leon and ask him questions on Twitter or Instagram (greengopost).
Image credits: Motiv,
City of Chicago
About The Author
Leon Kaye
Leon Kaye is the founder and editor of GreenGoPost.com and its advisory division,
GGP Media.
Contact him to discuss how he can work with your organization or event.
His focus is making the business case for sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR).
He writes for San Francisco-based
Triple Pundit,
Inhabitat and now
The Guardian, for which he writes about corporate responsibility, water, and green building. He has also written for AIA's
Architect Magazine.
Leon works out of Fresno and Silicon Valley, California, and when he has free time, he enjoys hiking, gardening, cooking, weightlifting, and planning his next trip to one of the 60 countries he has visited. He has an MBA from USC's Marshall School of Business and is also a proud graduate of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC) and Cal State-Fresno.
Motiv Power Systems, a Bay Area startup, recently landed a $13.4 million contract to start electrifying Chicago’s garbage trucks. The initiative, which will result with the conversion of 20 garbage trucks into electric vehicles (EVs) within five years, is the first major contract for the Foster City-based company.
Motiv’s value proposition is its electric powertrain control system (ePCS), which the company describes as a modular “operating system” that permits builders and owners of medium- and large-sized crops to use a common system to retrofit trucks of various sizes and weights. The result is a hardware and software platform that allows for the conversion of diesel- or gasoline-hogging heavy vehicles into EVs without steeply priced redesigns. Motiv ships its battery kits to truck chassis manufacturers, who then install the battery systems where gasoline or diesel engines would otherwise be plunked instead. So far Motiv has found success with shuttle buses, a stepping stone to this new conversion of garbage trucks in America’s third largest city.
According to the San Francisco Business Times, the cost of the trucks with the new battery technology systems will initially be double those powered by conventional engines. Motiv, however, insists that the payback time will be as short as four years. The trucks will have a minimum of 10 battery packs that will provide a capacity of 200 kilowatt hours of power storage that in turn will provide up to 60 miles of range per charge. The City of Chicago, meanwhile, will benefit in the long run from reduced fuel costs. The city will convert a total of 20 garbage trucks.
Companies developing EV technologies similar to that of Motiv’s have plenty of long term business opportunities with fleets such as Chicago’s garbage trucks. Garbage trucks, especially in more densely populated areas, travel short distances day to day, yet their weight and constant idling is the source of wasted fuel as well as emissions. Considering the fact that garbage trucks generally rarely need to move fast--yet can benefit from the torque that is one key advantage of electric drive trains--fleets are a compelling solution for such technologies to scale because the trucks can simply return to a central location to recharge overnight. With interest in electric buses and trucks on the upswing, look for large companies, and municipalities, to experiment with EVs even more frequently as conventional fuel prices continue to remain high.
Published earlier today on Triple Pundit. You can follow Leon and ask him questions on Twitter or Instagram (greengopost).
Image credits: Motiv, City of Chicago
