[sustran] Mass-produced hybrid Diesel engine for buses

[Todd Edelman]

Truck maker Volvo to launch hybrid engine in 2009

Questions/comments:
1 - Is there an online list of bus services using BioDiesel or better yet
post-consumer BioDiesel in Asia?
2 - What kind of local development and manufacturing is there with bus
engines in Asia?
3 - Trains have been "hybrids" for many years and a "this is what
hybridism was meant for" could be a strong message in relation to buses
4 - Volvo system seems to use engine+generator+battery system but the
company MAN is continuing a project with a working ultracapacitor hybrid
bus in Nuremburg, Germany. This has significant advantages over battery
and technology will trickle "down"... I have tech. info in German.
5 - What is the state-of-the-art in BRT buses in Asia or elsewhere (lowest
emissions, energy use, etc)? The Orange Line bus in Los Angeles?

- Todd

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Reuters / March 10, 2006 - 8:00 am

STOCKHOLM -- Truck maker Volvo aims to begin mass production in 2009 of a
hybrid diesel-electric truck engine which would cut fuel consumption by up
to 35 percent, it said on Friday.

The Swedish group said that rising oil prices and political efforts to
fight global warming by reducing emissions of carbon dioxide meant it now
saw potential for a commercial launch of a more expensive, but more
fuel-efficient hybrid truck engine.

The new engine runs on both diesel and electric power from a battery.

"The higher capital cost is compensated by lower fuel costs," Volvo CEO
Leif Johansson told a news conference. "And then we are not counting on
even higher fuel prices which could very well materialize, according to
some forecasts."

Volvo said that the new engine would be economically viable mainly for
short-haul trucks, buses and construction equipment as electric propulsion
was used mainly in connection with starting and stopping and at low
speeds.

"These are large segments of the market. We are talking about half of the
overall heavy truck market and perhaps as much as 75 percent of the bus
market and 100 percent of construction equipment," Johansson said on the
sidelines of the conference. "The production volumes will to a great
extent depend on the oil price. If the oil price stays at the current
level or rises I am convinced that (this product) will have a major
impact. We are talking at least several tens of thousands of vehicles (per
year)."

Volvo said it had invested $44.4 million to $50.8 million (350 million to
400 million Swedish crowns) in developing the engine and related
components and would spend "one or more" billions in setting up serial
production.

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Todd Edelman
International Coordinator
On the Train Towards the Future!

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