For places outside of main cities, local councils have been pretty slow to adopt electric bin lorries. Some counties, such as Wychavon have stumbled around with vegetable oil powered lorries in 2023, but in the past it did trial some electric bin lorries too. However, Herefordshire Council has recently announced that is going to be adding two new Dennis eCollect lorries to its collection rounds starting this month.

As of writing, more than 100 are in use across the roads in the UK, and these will be the first electric bin lorries to join the fleet for Herefordshire. Despite various claims and misinformation stating otherwise, the Dennis eCollect bin lorries perform very well for a lot of collection areas. Back in March 2023, the Welsh Government collected a large amount of data regarding the efficiency of the Dennis eCollect and reported its findings online.

Dennis says that each bin lorry has five packs of batteries, with 12 cells to a pack. In total it has an impressive 300kWh of capacity, driven by a 200kW (268bhp) electric motor. The batteries used are Li-NCM and by design, have much better cold weather performance than standard lithium-ion packs. Dennis says that most diesel bin lorries only achieve between 1.5mpg and 6mpg. However, when Dennis has witnessed the tests undertaken in the electric versions, it has reliably worked for eight hour shifts, with trips to the tip to empty them and they still had more than 30% range when returned to the depot. Additionally, even in double shift scenarios, the lorry has worked without being required to be recharged.

“These cutting edge vehicles are an exciting part of our new waste service. The benefits they will bring to residents and those who visit the city include a reduction in air pollution including particulates and nitrogen oxide gases, and a reduction in noise pollution. The Authority declared a climate and ecological emergency in March 2019 and is committed to achieving net zero by 2030, the introduction of the eCollects is a positive climate change action and a corner stone of this commitment.”

Cllr Swinglehurst, Cabinet Member Environment

Dennis manufacturers the eCollect in Warwick, UK.

Source: Herefordshire Council