When is a garbage truck greener than an EV?
Today the San Jose-based start-up Wrightspeed announced a series hybrid powertrain retrofit kit for waste haulers that seriously curtail waste of fuel. The company only makes series hybrid kits, and its new Route HD kit it says is (theoretically) cleaner than an all-electric vehicle in that its Capstone microturbine power generator boasts negligible emissions.
“Even if Wrightspeed’s Route HD powertrain is never plugged in,” says founder and CEO, Ian Wright, “it’s cleaner than an EV, because the exhaust emissions are lower per kilowatt-hour than the average mix of U.S. power stations.” Obviously this is a qualified statement and compares actual emissions for the on-board turbine to an average per-vehicle emissions profile for EVs using grid power across America.
If a pure EV is powered by renewable energy such as solar, wind, or hydro, then the EV would be cleaner, and truly “zero emissions” not only from the tailpipe, but from the energy source used to charge its batteries.
http://www.hybridcars.com/wrightspeed-waste-hauler-can-be-cleaner-than-an-ev/
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What is often lost in the myriad discussions about electrification are:
1) It is the large vehicles that have the biggest opportunity for a real improvement in our environment.
2) "Electric" isn't necessarily greener than other energy. If the electricity is produced from coal, it will be a lot less green than a vehicle that runs directly off natural gas. In other words, EVs only really become green as we make the move from dirty sources to renewable sources.
