Under Joe Biden, America has been running as hard as it can towards electric vehicles despite the obvious issues surrounding the technology. Besides issues with raw materials and cost, there are charging obstacles, lack of infrastructure, no real plan in place to recycle old batteries, and emerging safety issues surrounding the batteries.
That isn’t to mention the range issues, especially in heavy-duty vehicles like pickup trucks. When hauling any payload, some electric trucks lose a reported 1/4 of their range, offering a completely unique set of issues when being used as work vehicles.
At least one liberal state is coming to terms with the cold, harsh reality that perhaps battery-operated vehicles might be best left as toys. New York has decided to stay with traditional diesel-powered snow plows over less reliable, underpowered eclectic plows.
It wasn’t as if New York didn’t try to go electric. Three years ago, the New York Department of Sanitation purchased several Mack brand electric trucks to serve double duty as garbage trucks and snow-removal plows.
One of the trucks was fitted with a plow for snow removal purposes, and the results melted the city’s plans for an all-electric truck fleet. The reason? Quite simply a lack of power. A report stated that the plow had to move almost continually, and the snow buildup created resistance that was too much for the batteries to handle.
It was also reported that the plow only lasted approximately two hours before needing to be recharged. The truck performed adequately for trash removal, but the added weight and resistance from snow was simply too much to handle.
The trucks could operate for a maximum of three hours; however, up to 12 hours at a time is needed for snow removal, considering the heavy snow the area is prone to. The Vice President of Mack, the company that built the truck, confirmed that current technology can’t support the demands of snow removal.
The sheer weight of the batteries makes it prohibitive in terms of snow removal, leaving diesel as the only feasible answer. It is an answer to a question that didn’t exist. When faced with a blizzard or other situation where time is of the essence and large amounts of snow, water, or whatever must be removed, folks don’t care about alleged environmental benefits. They just want snow removed and mobility restored.
New York had previously pledged to phase out diesel by 2040, even though the city struggles to keep us as it is. Going electric now would almost certainly cost lives. The New York Sun reported last year: “New York City officials say the electric garbage trucks it has purchased in the name of combatting climate change cannot do double duty as snowplows — ‘they basically conked out after four hours. The Sun concluded: “The future of snow removal is probably diesel.”
Forcing short-range electric cars and underpowered electric pickups on an unwilling public is one thing; however, putting public safety at risk in the name of something as unsettled as the climate change issue is another. Diesel works, and when something as serious as a blizzard puts lives at risk, electric needs to step aside so big brother can get the job done.
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