EV snowplows isn't a case. I'd be interested if any discussion of electrifying included plowing.
One thing that's clear: until battery-powered EVs are able to handle real muscular work (snow removal, hauling, plowing, etc.), diesel engines will be purchased, maintained and fueled by all levels of authority. Exactly how will roads be maintained without graders, pavers, etc.?
Perhaps this is off topic, but I am curious about the future of construction equipment. If all the ICE cars are removed from the picture, including ICE freight trucks, will diesel fuel become vastly more expensive or harder to get? I plan to get some construction equipment within a couple of years. I've never seen electric prototypes for this size equipment, nor hydrogen. Maybe this is already being worked on? I've seen mini-EV-excavators, but never seen an EV in the mid to full sized excavators.
[Edit] Correcting myself, looks like Komatsu/Proterra are working on a bigger EV excavator. [1] I hope this becomes affordable because the noise reduction of electric would surely make my neighbors happy and I would love to not breath diesel exhaust.
On the maintenance point: I bought an electric lawnmower a few years ago not because of any environmental concerns but because I was tired of having to make a special trip to the gas station to fill gas cans, then keep special oil on hand, and then replace spark plugs, and then the head gasket cracked and I just threw it out. My electric mower needs to be plugged in, but there's no exhaust, no fumes, no oil or gas to worry about, fewer moving parts, easier to start, very light. It's just a ton more convenient.
While I don't own an electric car, any argument that there's no consumer benefit to electric car is just silly on its face. ICE engines need just so much maintenance in comparison.
Garbage trucks are probably one of the best places for it actually, because they stop so frequently. Unfortunately the article is about plow trucks instead which have a very different use case - New York just happens to use the same vehicles for both so they have a smaller fleet that's not as well suited to either task.
For garbage trucks you have stop and go movement so EVs eliminate idling. Given the size of the trucks it's probably not a big deal to make sure they have adequate battery capacity.
Plow trucks have a completely different use model where they're run at speed for long periods and one day of plowing could have the same distance traveled as weeks of trash collection. Hybrids would likely be an improvement in efficiency but the same way they do for other trucks - batteries support high demand periods while the generator is fine for the lower sustained loads.
Edit: a drawback of the smaller fleet for snow management is that garbage trucks aren't as well suited for salt/sand/deicer distribution. Nobody designs their garbage trucks to spray. I hope.
Edit2: garbage trucks also have a lot of additional mechanical systems that are probably already electrical, so among other things the ICE versions likely have an oversized alternator to power that.
Everyone leaves out the fact that current EVs are heavier than their ICE competition. Since road wear is something like to the fourth power of axel weight, the road wear is going to be nearly 3x using a fleet of EVs. The extra concrete and energy needed to maintain roads will negate any saving unless the fleet is made lighter.
While I agree waiting to electrify is the correct choice here (for so many reasons), this statement:
> If the EV plows aren't drop-in replacements for ICE plows, then they are not fit for service.
Is just false. The same logic would have prevented cars from displacing horses because cars aren't drop-in replacements for horses either. There are almost always tradeoffs for adopting new technologies, and demanding that EVs be strictly superior to ICE vehicles is absurd.
Unfortunately, moving from ICE to EV isn't a silver bullet. Look up non-exhaust emissions (NEE). When car tires and brakes wear down, they spit out particulate matter pollution. The OECD estimates NEE will constitute the majority of road emissions by 2035 [1], and it already constitutes the majority of particulate matter emissions on the road today [2]. EVs even make the problem a bit harder to solve, by being heavier than similar sized ICE vehicles.
EVs don’t know or care where their electricity comes from. You can clean up the grid and EV emissions magically improve. This isn’t something ICE vehicles can do.
There's one thing that worries me about EVs: local pollution.
So, ICE cars release CO2 + they release local pollutants (NO, CO, etc), particulate matter, that kind of thing.
EVs obviously don't directly release CO2 nor do they release those local pollutants.
However, EVs are on average much heavier (probably 200-400kgs heavier), which means that they probably need bigger tires and they wear them out faster. They probably also wear roads faster.
For local pollution, is the extra tire & road wear and tear equal or worse to the ICE tire & road wear and tear + exhaust gases?
In the long run electric will be more practical. We're at the point where normal, day to day range is acceptable for a majority of drivers. But the practicality electric has over ICE is that maintenance is practically nothing compared to it's counterpart. Also electrics (drivetrain) will outlast even diesel due to simplicity and inherent lack of wear parts.
If you want to disincentivise congestion, or car accidents, or road wear, or suburban sprawl fine.
But don't just spout climate change denier talking points about EVs.
EV busses are a hot trend right now, they make public transport cheaper, safer and greener.
Do you really want people to believe that they are environmentally worse than the ICE vehicles they are replacing? What about urban delivery trucks going EV? How does spreading that fiction help?
If the EV plows aren't drop-in replacements for ICE plows, then they are not fit for service.
Be an EV fanboi all you want. There are practical tasks that must be accomplished, and if one option achieves those tasks while another doesn't then the one that couldn't needs to either meet the competition or drop out.
Electric vehicles often have much better safety credentials than their ICE powered counterparts for a few reasons:
* All of the weight is in the bottom of the vehicle, giving a lower centre of gravity. I'd bet this will kill the old F150 in a moose (or child!) test.
* The lack of engine means the entire front part of the car is a huge crumple zone. This gives designers more wriggle room for pedestrian protection too. This is an increasingly important requirement in road safety standards.
* The electric motors are able to respond with torque far faster (in ms) than an ICE engine, so traction and stability control are more effective. Again good for things like the moose test.
* Switching our road transport to electric will probably save more children, and the adults they will become, from a lifetime of lung problems and premature death from pollution than better pedestrian safety features ever will.
A few things that should probably be taken into a account as we move to an electrified future is
1) what is the carbon footprint of an EV vehicle when we are recycling batteries
2) what is the carbon footprint of an EV as we increase efficiency/range
3) what is the carbon footprint of an ICE as they increase range
The reason this might be interesting is that EVs, I believe, are still in their infancy and are likely to continue to see considerable jumps in efficiency.
ICE vehicles are not seeing these efficiency gains at the same rate. The technology is fairly stale. However ICE cars are getting more powerful. With a 2l 4 cylinder engine now getting 200+ hp, which I think would have been unimaginable a decade ago.
Tesla vehicles are almost solid state devices, with relatively few moving parts compared to an ICE equipped vehicle.
I have an electric leaf blower, that never requires maintenance, lubrication, oil changes, etc. My next door neighbor has an ICE powered leaf blower and has to change the oil and lubricate it every season.
I'm not sure how you can argue that an ICE equipped vehicle will be easier to maintain than a fully electric one.
Smog? There is no smog on an EV - it's zero emissions.
I'd still imagine it would again take more energy for an ICE in this situation?
The ICE aside from all the inefficiencies of the engine, needs to run constantly and then gain enough revs to begin moving, where as the electric truck suffers from none of this, you put your foot down and the electrons flow, are used almost precisely.
Then if there is a downhill on this road, the EV can likely use regenerative breaking to gain some energy back. Pretty awesome.
If they can get enough energy density, we can start to begin thinking about distance/weight trade-offs. Currently electrics exceed the mass of ICE vehicles and that means more tire wear and road wear, plus more damage in accidents to less massive cars and vehicles.
One thing that's clear: until battery-powered EVs are able to handle real muscular work (snow removal, hauling, plowing, etc.), diesel engines will be purchased, maintained and fueled by all levels of authority. Exactly how will roads be maintained without graders, pavers, etc.?
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