The Big Buyers working group focusing on heavy-duty electric vehicles (HDEV)  for waste collection and street cleaning used the opportunity of the IFAT fair, happening in May 2022 in Munich, to meet with a variety of suppliers and investigate the latest market trends and technologies, focusing in particular on batteries.

IFAT is the leading trading fair for environmental technologies, featuring waste as one of its main areas of focus. This year 2,984 exhibitors were present, showcasing the latest technologies and trends.

The Big Buyers group had to opportunity to meet with a variety of suppliers of heavy-duty electric vehicles for waste collection and street cleaning, in particular linking with SMEs and suppliers from Finland, Spain, Italy and Germany. Additionally, the group renewed its contact with many of the suppliers it had already met, such as SCANIA, Renault and VOLVO. Participating in the fair was a great way to understand the most recent technological advancements in both waste management and collection, and street cleaning.

The group found that there have been many market advancements with regards to clean street cleaning vehicles products. Despite costs remaining high, the products are now able to satisfy the buyers’ needs. It's different when it comes to heavy-duty waste collection vehicles and in particular the quality of the batteries, where the market seems not to have made any substantial advancement in the last few years. Available products are the same as already investigated by the Big Buyers group, with just a handful of companies being able to supply the needs of buyers, in particular for maintenance and after-sale support.

Despite the Covid crisis seeming far away, companies still struggle with disturbances to the global supply chains and material availability, which results in high costs and huge delays, or uncertainties for when the products will be available for delivery.

These factors put some doubt on whether cities and public companies will be able to fulfill their ambitions to have complete zero emissions fleets by 2030. There are high hopes that the next generation of battery technology and the advancement of hydrogen solutions will bring the right ingredients to the public entities zero-emissions ambitions.

More on the Big Buyers working group market dialogues at IFAT can be found here.