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From The Cover
First all-electric street sweeper hits the road By SARAH WRIGHT | The Municipal
This May, the New York City Department of Sanitation welcomed its first all-electric street sweeper, marking a significant step toward realizing the city’s ambitious goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by the year 2035. It also marks the first delivery of Global Environmental Products’ all-electric sweeper, which has previously been demoed across the country. For Global, by offering a zero-emissions, custom-built chassis, it’s another step forward in its goal of bringing the latest in green sweeping technology to the North American market. “It truly stands alone,” Chad Bormann, Global Sebastian Mentelski, Global EnvironmenEnvironmental Products vice president, said. tal Products partner, agreed, noting, “Our “The class of sweepers that utilize electric bat- design and goal was to build an electric street teries and electric drive so far have been used sweeper fit for the U.S. market.” He added, by cities and states here for bike lanes. Our “We’ve always built a purpose-built chassis. street sweeper is a Class 7 — 27,000 pounds or We build our own truck — from the frame, more — chassis, capable of performing eight cab and hopper.” to 10-hour shifts. Global’s all-electric heavyAccording to Bormann, Global Environduty sweeper is truly the only one of its kind mental Products’ customized approach has in the world.” enabled it to adopt alternative fuels faster 10 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2021
ABOVE: The all-electric sweeper’s electric drive reduces the amount of costly maintenance required when compared to traditional street sweepers. (Photo provided)
than anyone else in the market. Because of the company’s forward-thinking, it has been able to adapt and embrace quickly emerging technology changes in electric and battery systems. Throughout its pursuit of zero emissions, the company has maintained a heavy-duty machine capable of handling cities’ most demanding sweeping tasks, with minimized maintenance requirements. Mentelski noted the all-electric sweeper’s minimal maintenance dramatically reduces the total operating costs, a win in the market. Street sweepers have traditionally been high in maintenance costs, with Mentelski noting, “A lot of sweepers have two engines.” However, the electric drive reduces the number of moving pieces and thus the amount of costly maintenance required.
