BERS - Battery Electric Road Sweeper Project

A 16-tonne battery electric road sweeper is being designed and built by Leyland Trucks and Bucher Municipal, based on a modified DAF XB electric truck chassis. This matters because road sweepers are heavy, energy-intensive vehicles that typically run on diesel, and their stop-start operation makes them difficult to electrify with off-the-shelf components. The project addresses a gap in zero-emission commercial vehicles for municipal and infrastructure cleaning. By integrating the sweeper body directly onto an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) electric chassis, the partners aim to create a production-ready vehicle that can be homologated through the EU whole vehicle type approval process. If successful, this would give Bucher its first production-representative electric road sweeper and open easier access to EU export markets. The focus on optimised energy usage and vehicle packaging for this specific type of operation could make electric sweepers practical for everyday street cleaning, reducing diesel emissions in towns and cities. The impact is on the quiet infrastructure that keeps public spaces clean—a system most people rarely think about until it stops working.