Peterborough partners with Renault Trucks to roll out first electric RCV

Supplied by RH Commercial Vehicles, the two new vehicles will initially work on garden waste collections and will be trialled on other waste streams in the coming months. Residual waste collections are transferred to Peterborough’s energy from waste plant at Fengate, where 85,000 tonnes of residential waste can be converted into electricity to power 16,000 homes.

The two new vehicles include a low entry cab with CP Davidson Titan refuse collection bodies.

Councillor Nigel Simons, Peterborough city council’s cabinet member for infrastructure, environment and climate change, said: “We are fully committed to reducing carbon emissions in everything that we do as a council and these new electric vehicles will play a key role in this. Residents may notice the new vehicles by how quiet they are.

“It’s fantastic to have them in our fleet and we look forward to monitoring their progress over the coming months.”

Battery packs

Renault Trucks said the two eRCVs are the first Renault Trucks in the UK to be fitted with four 94kW battery packs, which offer up to 40% more capacity.

They are “expected to cut emissions by 60% compared with the previous diesel vehicles they replace”.

The company said this is “ideal to power the longer running times, multiple bin lifts and waste compaction demanded by the intensive refuse collection operation”.

The new vehicles are expected to cover 120km and up to 1,300 bin lifts per day, over a ten-hour shift, the company concluded.

Ian Spence, director of operations at Peterborough Limited, said: “These new Renault Trucks E-Tech eRCVs are the first step to a greener fleet for Peterborough city council, delivering for our residents almost silently with zero tailpipe emissions. As we transition to a decarbonised fleet, our vehicles need to keep up with the demands of our operation, and the increased capacity of the Renault Trucks 94kW batteries makes the difference.”

Urban

The vehicles are also equipped with Renault Trucks’ low-entry cab, which offers “easier and safer” access and egress for operators on urban cycles making hundreds of collections a day.

The eRCVs are charged overnight at Aragon Direct Service’s Fengate depot, where all maintenance is carried out in-house, following “full training on how to work safely on electric vehicles undertaken”.