Electric trucks are proving that they can be more powerful, more reliable, easier to use and more cost-effective than legacy diesels, one grueling job at a time. If there’s one application that requires serious power and reliability, it’s clearing snow from roads in northern Norway.

The Norwegian Road Administration recently tested an electric truck in a snow-plowing application on the road between Dombås and Grønbakken, which climbs from an elevation of 650 meters to over 1,000 meters.

The truck is a Volvo FH model that was converted to battery-electric by Swiss Designwerk Technologies, (Volvo Trucks owns a 6% stake in the company). It has a 1,000 kWh battery pack, and features technology that keeps the battery warm in order to mitigate the effect of cold weather on range. Mizanur Rahaman of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration told CleanTechnica that energy consumption has been running at about 182 kWh per 100 km.

The truck can charge at a power level of 350 kW, and a full charge takes about 2 hours. Designwerk designed the onboard charger to deliver an almost-flat charging curve from beginning to end of a charging session.

Conditions this winter have been ideal for testing an electric snowplow, Rahaman said. The region has had sub-zero temperatures and plenty of snow. The Road Administration has also successfully tested the truck in controlled conditions at its test center.

“This test shows that it is already possible to use electric vehicles even for the heaviest tasks, namely plowing on mountain passes,” says Mizanur Rahaman.

Source: CleanTechnica