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Using electrified technology to power the future
AFMA catches up with Andrew Love , Supervisor of Assets Cleaning , from the City of Monash to hear how the Council has gone with a trial of Bucher Municipal ’ s new compact sweeper and electric rear loader co-developed with CMI Hino and SEA electric .
WORDS BY DANIEL BRAID
Take us through the trial of the Bucher Municipal vehicles . What vehicles were used and in what capacities ?
We used Bucher Municipal rear loader vehicle , UrBin RL110e ( previously named UrBin 11e ). We had this vehicle for a week and our teams basically took it out and used it to pick up litter .
I also took out the new all electric compact sweeper , the CityCat V20e in a car park for about an hour and it was extremely impressive . I didn ’ t think it would have the power that it did have being an EV . We filled the truck in an hour in a car park , so I was really impressed with the amount of suction we generated .
Are the electric models quieter than the traditional models ?
My teams were surprised with how quiet the electric rear loader was , and how quick around town it was for them . We ’ ve used Bucher Municipal ’ s products for many years so we knew the compactions systems would be good but with regards to the electric aspects , we were all very impressed . It did have its minor moments of sluggishness on the uphills but for what we would use an EV for it would suit us .
Are there any potential issues you might find in using the vehicles long term ?
The vehicle always got through our eight-hour shift and has always lasted the journey . For what we do we don ’ t need race cars - it ’ s as simple as that and it ’ s not an issue . The issue we might have is that we tend to double shift with some of our vehicles and we would need to find a way to be able to charge these on a quick charge to make a double shift possible .
Have you had to install any additional charging stations around council for the trial ?
We already had existing council charge points but we installed an extra port for this trial . The City of Monash is aiming for the Council to be net zero by 2025 . It ’ s quite ambitious and one of the best ways for us to achieve that is through using more efficient vehicles . Outside of vehicles , we are well and truly invested into the space of electric – especially electric machinery . I ’ ve been using the electric backpack blowers for nearly two years , which have been extremely reliable and it also stops noise complaints .
28 ISSUE 29 JUNE 2021 / WWW . AFMA . ORG . AU