Sorry I just posted the first link that showed up, not the most current. As of mid-2006:

"...Through these projects and others, Eaton has built a business case for their hybrid electric powertrain that has thus far resulted in a recent order of 75 additional Opti-Fleet E-700 trucks that are currently being placed into service in FedEx Express's pick-up and delivery fleet along with orders from UPS for 50 additional hybrid step-van delivery vehicles to be placed into service in late 2006."

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2...22/012360.html

And from a big meeting on the subject last November:

"...The parcel group is in the midst of organizing a joint purchase of more than 20 pre-production hybrid hydraulic parcel trucks;
The refuse group is refining a purchase commitment for 15-20 pre-production hybrid refuse trucks; and
The utility group is looking to expand fleet participation to include other applications that use similar truck sizes, and is putting together plans for a potential 500-1000 truck joint "order" if appropriate price points, business case, performance data and purchase cost assistance can be achieved. "

http://www.calstart.org/programs/htu...ing_report.php

CalStart/Westart's timeline:

http://www.calstart.org/programs/htu...02006%20Dr.pdf

None of these answer the question "how many hybrid trucks are on the road right now?" so I emailed that Q to Monica Alvarez, a Westart project manager. Will let y'all know if anything interesting in reply.

DAS

 

Thanks for the links- they were very interesting. According to your last link, the (somewhat outdated, as you say) claims are that FedEx has 18 on the roads in 2005, with plans to add 75 more by May '06 and another 75 'next year', which I suppose may mean by May '07. Assuming that's right, that's 168, as of about three months from now. Not too shabby! By all means, let's get more updated data, though.

But my main point, about how ten or a hundred or so (order of magnitude) is a drop in the bucket next to 100,000++ vehicles in their fleet, still stands. That's about 0.001th of the total, as an order of magnitude approximation. Hard to get tremendously excited about 0.001th. But like I said- it's a step in the right direction.

The thing that I found most exciting in the links you posted was the following:
From http://www.calstart.org/programs/htu...02006%20Dr.pdf :

Isn't that fabulous? I wish I knew bunches of people who worked in city transit systems so I could tell them about this change in the law, though I imagine it must be fairly well known by now. NO HYBRID PREMIUM for buses! This is great news and a wonderful policy.

 

But how many vehicle do they add each year and how many do they retire each year. If they add say, 1000 vehilces each year and of that 1000, 75 are hybrid, then they are approaching 1% hybrid vehilces in the fleet. That would be a good thing. And before you say they should be doing better, they are a company that MUST be profitable and the hybrids are still in the experimental phase. They don't know the true long term cost of implementing these vehicles, and a guarded stance is to be expected.

 

I'm glad to see that hybrid buses are delivering results. When I first started posting to this site and mentioned that GM 2-Mode hybrid technology was based on the technology that was being put into a hybrid bus system, several folks on this site poo-pooed the idea that the bus hybrids would ever deliver positive results.

I don't know if the Indy buses are GM installations or another company, but at least they show that there is a lot of poential in converting city bus fleets to hybrid systems.

Peace,

Martin

 

Hi Martin,
I didn't have the numbers and I believe you helped us find out there are over 500 out there. This is not something talked about much, any idea about how many have been made and put in service?

One humble request, if you learn of a good technical paper or illustrated break-out chart and paper, I'd be interested in learning more about the 2-Mode system. The available photos and light-weight discussions aren't very detailed. I figured when the Canadian plant began rolling them out, a lot more information would become available. But if something shows up early, I'm 'all ears.'

Thanks,
Bob Wilson

 

More hybrid bus news:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070312/20070311005022.html?.v=2

DAS

 

That is a clever approach, inserting a single motor hybrid system between the front engine and the rear axle. There are a lot of other questions about integrating the hybrid drive with the vehicle drive systems but these are solvable problems. If it can be integrated with an automatic engine shutdown and startup system, it would be a sweet solution.

Bob Wilson

 

90% emissions improvements and 30-55% fuel efficiency improvements (70ish% with the system that approximates a plug-in)! That's pretty impressive. Though the buses could have been in really bad shape to begin with, of course- but then it's even better that they're being upgraded. It seems to me like this is some low-hanging fruit, here- lots of room for early and swift improvement!

 

From Green Car Congress:

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006...brid_buse.html

"NYC Hybrid Buses Improve Fuel Economy 45% Over Diesel, 100% over CNG"

And for the Prius folks:

From PC Mag:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1902185,00.asp

"Imagine a transit bus that's as good for the environment as 15,000 Toyota Priuses....."

We've been enjoying the benefits here in NYC at $500,000 a pop.

 

Thanks for the links, Fred! I was suprised by how poorly the natural gas buses did in that study, though I haven't researched them. Also, I'm a little annoyed that they released all these results without including the summer months in the data, because that adds a lot of unnecessary speculation and error bars and lets them natter on about how heat prevents regenerative braking (sounds ridiculous to me from my experience, though if there's an actual engineer here who would back up that assertion and give reasons for it, then of course I'm happy to be convinced).

Still, the winter data is darn impressive, as Fred already pointed out- a 45% improvement!!!! Can you imagine if they cut the fuel usage of the entire NYC bus system by 45%? That would be HUGE.