Hybrids are becoming the economical choice for commercial vehicles
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The return on investment for hybrid technology in commercial vehicle technologies is reaching the tipping point, according to a study performed by ABIresearch. While consumer hybrids generally get the attention, many commercial vehicle customers, who are normally very wary of unproven technologies, are starting to warm up to fuel saving technologies such as hybrids. While emissions reductions are a benefit of hybrid vehicles, the real value for the commercial customers is in the improvement in fuel economy and reductions in maintenance cost. With the increase in orders follow economy of scale effects, which are making the hybrid vehicles for certain commercial markets the economical choice, not merely the environmental one. While consumer hybrids are currently only variations of the parallel architecture, using batteries as energy storage, for the commercial market both parallel and series architectures are available and hydraulic energy storage is offered by some manufacturers as an alternative to electrical systems. [Source: BusinessWire]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Howard Lee Harkness 7:39PM (7/21/2006)
For a heavy vehicle that makes a lot of stops, a hybrid can make sense. A small diesel or SVO engine running at constant load putting any excess energy into a supercapacitor bank would get the best of both worlds, and regenerative braking would not only save energy, but reduce maintenance substantially.
Note, I mentioned supercapacitors, not batteries. Battery technology still isn't quite ready for prime time, and supercaps are probably going to be lighter, cheaper, and more durable than equivalent in batteries for the foreseeable future. As batteries improve, so will supercaps.
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S.M.Mehdi Hassan 5:29AM (7/23/2006)
Heavy vehicles burn more fuel and gas. It is not easy to come up with any alternative solution to meet their demands. This is what I have been hearing all this time. Now I feel optimistic. Thanks for the post Bruno.
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