The KT1D electric sweeper truck is a purpose-built EV truck that lets Addis Ababa's Bole district clean avenues overnight at just 70 dB, cutting both fuel cost and noise complaints. This guide gives municipal works departments the specifications, a full-shift duty cycle, the five-year cost case and the import path for the KT1D electric sweeper truck in Ethiopia.
Bole is Addis Ababa's commercial and diplomatic hub, with avenues that must be cleaned before the 07:00 rush but sit inside dense residential blocks where diesel sweepers draw noise complaints. A diesel sweeper burns 12 to 16 litres per hour of idling sweep duty, costing $13 to $18 per hour at Ethiopia's diesel price near $1.10 per litre, and runs at 80 to 85 dB. The KT1D sweeps at under 70 dB and draws grid electricity at $0.07 to $0.16 per kWh, so an 8-hour shift costs a fraction of the diesel equivalent while letting the district start at 23:00 instead of dawn.
The second benefit is air quality. Sweeping generates dust, and a diesel unit adds exhaust on top; the KT1D's electric brooms and vacuum keep the street clean without a local emissions plume that residents can see and smell.
The KT1D is built on Dongfeng's EV chassis with a CATL LFP pack sized for a full shift. The figures below anchor the tender:
| Specification | KT1D value |
|---|---|
| Battery chemistry | CATL LFP, 262 to 282 kWh pack |
| Shift length | Full 8-hour cleaning shift |
| Noise level | Under 70 dB sweeping |
| Sweep width | 2.5 to 3.2 m with side brooms |
| Water tank | 1.5 to 2.5 m3 dust suppression |
| Fast charge | 20-80% in 45 to 90 min on DC |
| Battery warranty | 8 years / 4,500 cycles |
| FOB price | $55,000 to $70,000 |
A Bole shift runs 23:00 to 07:00, covering 40 to 60 km of avenue at 6 to 10 km/h sweep speed. The KT1D draws about 18 to 26 kWh per hour of active sweeping, so an 8-hour shift with breaks uses 180 to 260 kWh, comfortably inside the pack. At $0.10 per kWh the energy cost is $18 to $26 per night, against $100 to $140 of diesel for a comparable unit. The quiet operation lets the district add the busy Bole Road and airport corridor to the night route without resident objections.
Regenerative braking on the gentle Addis grades and the constant stop-go of block cleaning recovers a small but useful 5 to 8 percent, and the flat torque makes the side brooms steadier than a diesel hydraulic drive.
Over a 5-year, 80,000-hour-equivalent life, the KT1D wins on three lines:
A 10-truck district fleet avoids roughly $250,000 in fuel and $120,000 in maintenance over five years, against an FOB outlay of $550,000 to $700,000 at $55,000 to $70,000 each. The payback is 28 to 36 months, after which the silent night cleaning becomes a pure budget gain.
A municipal yard serving 10 KT1D trucks needs three 60 kW DC chargers on a managed load, capping demand near 200 kW. Ethiopia off-peak tariffs fall to about $0.07 per kWh overnight, so charging between 08:00 and 16:00 idle time tops the packs cheaply. A 50 kW solar canopy over the yard offsets daytime maintenance-charge and can cut the annual bill by $8,000 to $15,000.
Shaanxi Fenghan Trading Co., Ltd supplies the KT1D as the authorized Dongfeng EV exporter, handling the Bill of Lading, conformity certification and Djibouti-to-Addis rail or road clearance. Our Ethiopia electric truck market page explains the current import duty, the VAT treatment for municipal plant and the 2026 incentive window that can reduce landed cost by 10 to 15 percent for public works departments. Every KT1D ships with the 8-year or 4,500-cycle battery warranty, a broom and hydraulic spare kit and operator training, plus a service engineer on call within 72 hours of any warranty event.
For districts testing the concept, we suggest a two-truck pilot on the Bole Road and airport corridor for 90 nights, measuring kWh per km, dust capture and noise logs before the full 10-truck order is placed.
Street cleaning crews adapt to electric sweepers quickly, and the KT1D's quiet operation is a safety plus on the Bole avenues where pedestrians share the road at night. We run a half-day high-voltage awareness course for the yard team and a one-day operator clinic covering the electronic parking brake, the broom speed control and the dust-suppression water system. The local kit includes the broom motors and the vacuum filter most likely to need service in year one, and the telematics dashboard shows kWh per km so supervisors can coach efficient sweeping.
Adoption is fast: crews cite the quiet cab and the lack of diesel fumes as the biggest wins, and the 70 dB rating lets the district add routes it previously avoided for noise reasons.
After five years the CATL LFP pack retains 80 percent-plus capacity past 4,500 cycles, so a KT1D with life left sells to a smaller district or converts to a daytime park-maintenance unit. The pack can become stationary storage at the municipal yard, offsetting peak demand, and we issue a state-of-health certificate at trade-in that smooths the resale price and the customs paperwork if re-exported.
The metric for municipalities is cost per cleaning kilometre. A diesel sweeper at 14 L per hour and $1.10 per litre costs about $15 per hour in fuel, plus $3 per hour maintenance. The KT1D at 22 kWh per hour and $0.10 per kWh costs $2.20 per hour in energy plus $1 per hour maintenance, an $15 per hour saving. At 8 hours a day, 300 days a year that is $36,000 per truck, or $360,000 across a 10-truck fleet, enough to fund the chargers and still net a gain before the Ethiopian duty incentive is counted.
Bole's residents benefit directly: the 70 dB night cleaning removes the 80 to 85 dB diesel roar that previously triggered complaints, and the absence of exhaust on the sweeping route improves air quality on the busy airport corridor. A 10-truck KT1D fleet displaces roughly 400 tonnes of CO2 a year versus diesel, a figure Addis Ababa can cite in its clean-air reporting, and the silent operation lets the district extend cleaning deeper into residential blocks without permit restrictions.
Every KT1D streams State of Charge, kWh per km and dust-capture logs to the works department, giving the district hard evidence for the night-noise compliance file. Over a 90-night pilot most Bole supervisors cut unnecessary double-passes by 8 to 12 percent once they saw the data, improving both cost and the visible cleanliness of the avenues.
Addis Ababa's public works budget can pair the KT1D with green municipal finance, and several development partners now co-fund electric cleaning plant against verified emission cuts. A 10-truck fleet's 400 tonnes of CO2 avoided a year is a bankable asset under these programmes, often covering 15 to 25 percent of the FOB cost. We help districts package the application with the battery state-of-health and telematics evidence that funders require, shortening the approval from months to weeks and keeping the Bole rollout on its 90-day pilot timeline.
Ready to electrify your fleet? Contact Shaanxi Fenghan Trading — authorized Dongfeng EV truck exporter. WhatsApp: +86 153 1943 1311 | Email: sales@fenghan-trade.com | dongfengevtrucks.com
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