Hard sell for hybrid trucks
#1
11-23-2007, 09:54 AM
Hard sell for hybrid trucks
City buses, refuse trucks and delivery vans are perfect candidates for hybrid powertrains, which use less energy and cause less pollution than conventional combustion engines, especially in stop-and-go traffic. But while image-conscious drivers, especially in the United States, have embraced hybrid cars, truck operators find the new technology too expensive compared with the potential fuel savings -- and hybrid diesel-electric trucks are struggling to catch on.
#2
11-25-2007, 12:52 PM
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Location: San Diego, CA, USA
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Re: Hard sell for hybrid trucks
One commercial vehicle that I think would definitely benefit from alternative fuel would be mail trucks. They are you driving 8 hours a day 6 days a week. A hybrid system probably would not save them too much gas, but a solar electric system sure would. They are only out when the sun is shining, they travel mainly at slow speeds, they do not go long distances, and they could plug in to fully charge at night. Too bad the USPS doesn't have enough money to experiment with this.
#3
11-27-2007, 07:23 AM
Re: Hard sell for hybrid trucks
Around here mail is typically delivered in RHD jeeps. I'm sure there would be plenty of savings with a hybrid since they are stopping every one or two hundred feet. I think their routes are probably too long for a full electric car, and the economics of an electric or solar electric are quite possibly worse than a hybrid because of the high cost of batteries and solar panels. "They are only out when the sun is shining" might be true in San Diego, but it sure isn't in the Pacific Northwest. 
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