Wiltshire’s electric bin lorry to stay in Salisbury

The year-long trial of an electric bin lorry in Wiltshire has proved a success – but only in urban areas.

The trial started in Chippenham and Calne in January last year, before moving on to Salisbury, where the £330,000 Volvo refuse collection vehicle will be staying.

Wiltshire Council’s cabinet member for environment, climate and waste said the trial had been “valuable” and “will be used to inform the fleet strategy.”

And the council’s head of waste and highway operations, Adrian Hampton, told the Environment Select Committee this week that the 26-tonne electric Refuse Collection Vehicle (eRCV) was more expensive than the equivalent diesel, at £240,000.

But he said the price of electric vehicles was coming down while, at the same time, the cost of diesel was climbing.

Mr Hampton said there was an “undisputable lower cost of propulsion.”

He added that the trial had saved the council 18.65 tonnes of carbon emissions.

He told councillors that the eRCV had “performed well on urban and suburban routes” but had struggled in more rural areas, with a battery range of just 60 to 70 miles, and collection lorries averaging between 100 miles and 260 miles a day.

However, he said, new eRCVs would achieve double the mileage.

The trial also found that the high-capacity chargers needed to top up the lorry’s battery are not widely available.

Car chargers around the county typically deliver 50 to 100 kilowatts, while the bin lorry requires 140 kw chargers – making overnight charging at council depots the only viable option.

The trial also revealed the need for crew training – the eRCV had suffered four flat-battery incidents during the trial, which were due to drivers not understanding that the battery level could not fall below 20 per cent.

Wiltshire Council expects to renew its fleet of bin lorries on a 10-year rolling cycle, and said it would look at diesel alternatives, including trucks run on hydrotreated vegetable oil as a low-carbon option.

In debate, committee chairman Cllr Dr Nick Murry (Chippenham Monkton, Independent) noted that 51 per cent of Wiltshire’s residents live in urban areas, and said he had been impressed when he saw the eRCV in action in Chippenham.

However, Cllr Kevin Asplin (Amesbury East & Bulford, Reform UK) demanded to know how much the year-long experiment had cost the taxpayers of Wiltshire.

And challenging claims that eRCVs were quieter, Cllr Bill Parks

(Warminster North & Rural, Conservative) wryly pointed out that whether the collection truck was diesel or electric, the noise of glass bottles being collected was the same.

The committee voted to note the report.