How electric Zambonis highlight the need for zero-emission EVs on and off the ice
Zero emission electric Zamboni (Source: City of Mississauga)
Electric vehicles are better for the climate and your health, with zero tailpipe emissions. Electric Zambonis are a perfect example since they often operate in an enclosed environment.
Those ice resurfacers (or Zambonis as they are often referred to in tribute to American inventor and engineer Frank Zamboni) you enjoy watching clean the ice between Hockey periods can be damaging not only to just the players’ health but also spectators’.
Even with new zero-emission electric technology and research to prove its benefits, most Zambonis still run on natural gas, gasoline, diesel, or propane.
Burning those types of fuels indoors, where most hockey is played, can generate air pollutants like carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide. In fact, there have been several cases where entire hockey rinks of people have been forced to evacuate due to toxic levels of air pollutants.
For example, parents and students were evacuated from a hockey game in Tupper Lake, New York, after the Tupper Lake Volunteer Fire Department Chief Royce Cole determined carbon monoxide levels were at 50 parts per million (ppm).
According to the current Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the permissible limit for carbon monoxide is 50 ppm within eight hours.
The culprit was later determined to be a 1972 Zamboni, scheduled for replacement. Several people were sent to the emergency room, and at least one of the kids required oxygen due to the carbon monoxide exposure.
This is just one example. As CBC News Canada points out, it’s happening all too often, leading Health Canada to step in.
Electric Zambonis save the climate and your health
Health Canada released the best practices for improving air quality in ice arenas after finding, “in recent years, there have been numerous reported incidents of poisoning in Canadian arenas, frequently occurring during periods of ice resurfacing.”
The agency says documented cases of CO poisonings from resurfaced emissions in arenas have reported levels of 40 to 170 ppm (it recommends a short-term exposure limit of 25 ppm).
And the worst part is the pollutants aren’t fully cleared overnight by the ventilation system, meaning they can build up over time with more use.
To overcome this, Health Canada claims in the report:
Electric-powered equipment is the best option for eliminating CO and NO2 emissions in ice arenas. Arenas using electric resurfacers have been shown to have CO and NO2 levels similar to concurrent levels outside the arena, consistently below 1.0 ppm and 0.02 ppm.
Although electric Zambonis can cost more upfront (around $50,000 more), the additional expenses are recouped through fuel and maintenance savings.
Although researchers have tried various strategies to remove the pollution, including upgraded ventilation, zero-emission electric Zambonis were the only extremely effective solution.
Electrek’s Take
The electric Zamboni is a prime example of what’s happening outside the rink. Toxic emissions are being emitted consistently every day, and although you can’t see it, you are likely breathing it in.
Despite hockey rinks being inside with poor ventilation, the same idea applies. Burning fossil fuels adds carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases that get trapped in the atmosphere, causing temperatures to rise and other producing other harmful effects to the planet and your health.
Research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows greenhouse gases caused by human activities trapped 49% more heat in the atmosphere in 2021 than in 1990.
The best way to reverse these effects is by using zero-emission battery electric vehicle technology. As the Zamboni EV example shows, electric-powered equipment is best for reducing emissions.
You may think twice the next time you go to watch a hockey game. Just make sure the Zamobini is an electric one.
Several professional hockey teams, like the Seattle Kraken and Arizona Coyotes, have revealed all-electric ice resurfacers.
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If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you combine a fruit cart, a cargo bike, and a Piaggio Ape all in one vehicle, now you’ve got your answer. I submit, for your approval, this week’s feature for the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column – and it’s a beautiful doozie.
Feast your eyes on this salad slinging, coleslaw cruising, tuber taxiing produce chariot!
I think this electric vegetable trike might finally scratch the itch long felt by many of my readers. It seems every time I cover an electric trike, even the really cool ones, I always get commenters poo-poo-ing it for having two wheels in the rear instead of two wheels in the front. Well, here you go, folks!
Designed with two front wheels for maximum stability, this trike keeps your cucumbers in check through every corner. Because trust me, you don’t want to hit a pothole and suddenly be juggling peaches like you’re in Cirque du Soleil: Farmers Market Edition.
To avoid the extra cost of designing a linked steering system for a pair of front wheels, the engineers who brought this salad shuttle to life simply side-stepped that complexity altogether by steering the entire fixed front end. I’ve got articulating electric tractors that steer like this, and so if it works for a several-ton work machine, it should work for a couple hundred pounds of cargo bike.
Featuring a giant cargo bed up front with four cascading fruit baskets set up for roadside sales, this cargo bike is something of a blank slate. Sure, you could monetize grandma’s vegetable garden, or you could fill it with your own ideas and concoctions. Our exceedingly talented graphics wizard sees it as the perfect coffee and pastry e-bike for my new startup, The Handlebarista, and I’m not one to argue. Basically, the sky is the limit with a blank slate bike like this!
Sure, the quality doesn’t quite match something like a fancy Tern cargo bike. The rim brakes aren’t exactly confidence-inspiring, but at least there are three of them. And if they should all give out, or just not quite slow you down enough to avoid that quickly approaching brick wall, then at least you’ve got a couple hundred pounds of tomatoes as a tasty crumple zone.
The electrical system does seem a bit underpowered. With a 36V battery and a 250W motor, I don’t know if one-third of a horsepower is enough to haul a full load to the local farmer’s market. But I guess if the weight is a bit much for the little motor, you could always do some snacking along the way. On the other hand, all the pictures seem to show a non-electric version. So if this cart is presumably mobile on pedal power alone, then that extra motor assist, however small, is going to feel like a very welcome guest.
The $950 price is presumably for the electric version, since that’s what’s in the title of the listing, though I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. I’ve bought a LOT of stuff on Alibaba, including many electric vehicles, and the too-good-to-be-true price is always exactly that. In my experience, you can multiply the Alibaba price by 3-4x to get the actual landed price for things like these. Even so, $3,000-$4,000 wouldn’t be a terrible price, considering a lot of electric trikes stateside already cost that much and don’t even come with a quad-set of vegetable baskets on board!
I should also put my normal caveat in here about not actually buying one of these. Please, please don’t try to buy one of these awesome cargo e-trikes. This is a silly, tongue-in-cheek weekend column where I scour the ever-entertaining underbelly of China’s massive e-commerce site Alibaba in search of fun, quirky, and just plain awesomely weird electric vehicles. While I’ve successfully bought several fun things on the platform, I’ve also gotten scammed more than once, so this is not for the timid or the tight-budgeted among us.
That isn’t to say that some of my more stubborn readers haven’t followed in my footsteps before, ignoring my advice and setting out on their own wild journey. But please don’t be the one who risks it all and gets nothing in return. Don’t say I didn’t warn you; this is the warning.
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Environment
Podcast: Trump/GOP go after EV/solar, Tesla, Ford, GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Trump’s Big Beautiful bill becoming law and going after EVs and solar, Tesla, Ford, and GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more
Today’s episode is brought to you by Bosch Mobility Aftermarket—A global leader and trusted provider of automotive aftermarket parts. To celebrate Amazon Prime Day July 8th through 11th, Bosch Mobility is offering exclusive savings on must-have auto parts and tools. Learn more here.
The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:
We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming.
Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:
- Electrek FSGP 2025: New teams, new cars, same solar spirit
- Congress votes to send 2 million US jobs to China, increase deficit, energy costs
- Tesla (TSLA) confirms 384,000 deliveries in Q2 2025, right on expectations
- Tesla prototype sparks speculation: a Model Y, maybe slightly smaller
- Tesla launches Oasis Supercharger with solar farm and off-grid batteries
- Tesla unveils its LFP battery factory, claims it’s almost ready
- Here’s why Ford’s electric vehicle sales crashed by nearly a third in Q2
- The Chevy Equinox EV is GM’s breakout star, but that’s not the only surprise
- Xpeng launches G7, a new Tesla Model Y competitor for just $27,000
Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET:
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