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1,000,000 electric kilometres and counting

 

Waste Management’s electric fleet has reached a significant milestone – 1,000,000 electric kilometres.

It means we’ve saved 375,000 litres of diesel and stopped 1,109 tonnes of CO2e from entering the atmosphere.

We’ve got 28 electric trucks on the roads of New Zealand right now and we have plans to expand this by a further 23 trucks in 2023.

Congratulations to our incredibly hardworking and talented EV fleet team.

The EV Fleet team: Josh Frankson, Ashley Davenport, Jitesh Singh, Cyprian Mudzingwa, Arnold Fernandes and Sam Donaldson.

 

Technical Manager – Fleet Jitesh Singh says it’s invaluable having a specialist EV Innovation Hub at our Auckland HQ to convert diesel vehicles to electric.

“It lets us convert specialist refuse collection trucks, such as LEVs and dual controlled side loaders, which are not available to buy. We’ve converted 13 trucks since moving to the Auckland HQ in late 2019, with a lot more to come.”

Some fast facts about our EV fleet:

  • They are quiet. A standard diesel engine produces approximately 100dB of noise. Our electric engines produce around 70dB. For context that’s about the same difference as between an airplane and a diesel truck
  • The fuel cost of an EV truck is 17.5c/km compared to 78.7c/km for a diesel truck
  • Our EV trucks are capable of 25% regeneration (from capturing the kinetic energy from braking and converting it to electrical power to recharge the vehicle’s battery). That means 25% free fuel