Pike Research has released results from a survey that indicate that 10 percent of truck fleets by 2015 will be plug-in hybrids.
TodaysTrucking.com reported today that, according to Boulder, Colo, research firm, hybrid sales will jump to more than 830,000 vehicles five years from now compared to 300,000 vehicles in 2009. The U.S. market is expected to lead all other countries.
While the article points out that plug-in hybrid drives are an “ideal fit for trucks…because of the wide variety of customization in the trucks after the chassis and drive train are assembled.” But, the report adds, the high price of larger capacity batteries is still an issue, and that’s not to mention the duty cycles of these batteries in their current iterations.
The feds are throwing a boat load of cash at R&D, but incremental costs still certainly preclude school transporters from being early adopters of the technology, no matter a $6,000 PHEV price decrease announced in July by IC Bus plus hybrid tax incentives available from the IRS and the California Air Resources Board to alleviate the pain in the pocketbook for its school customers. Instead, as the report also points out, government, university and utility company fleets will lead the charge toward the road to hybrid plug ins.
It might be the right thing to do, but PHEVs still seem very much to be a long-term solution whose time has not yet come to the school bus market. Even better for the environment is the zero-emissions technology, which exists for heavy-duty commercial trucks, says Lawrence Weisdorn of Vision Industries Corp. We know Freightliner is developing an all-electric truck for its delivery company customers. There are also a couple of companies that are toying with zero-emissions school buses. But, still, cost is a very big factor, and the market seeing anything viable and cost effective are years and years away. What we’re hearing is that a $375,000, as-yet unproven vehicle make no sense when compared to a bus that costs four times less and runs on, say, propane or CNG, which has a lot of available data to digest.
