Heavy Truck Hybrids: An Introduction

Hybrid passenger cars and light trucks are becoming common accepted hot consumer items. What is happening with hybrid heavy-duty vehicles? There is a serious lack of advance in replacing highly contaminant diesel and gasoline heavy trucks and buses by their hybrid counterparts despite the fact that the hybrid technology is widely available.

Why Heavy Truck Hybrids?

Millions and millions of heavy trucks and buses are driven on streets and highways everywhere. These are usually driven by high contaminant diesel engines. Improving their emissions and fuel economy is critical to the everybody environmental well being. Technology development of heavy-duty vehicles with low fuel consumption and zero or near-zero emissions that can replace conventional diesel driven vehicles is important to solve both environmental and energy problems.

Some experimentation has been done with public mass transit buses. An estimated 800 800 hybrid public transit buses are operating in U.S. cities. However, transit buses are a very low portion of the heavy-duty vehicle market. Think of the millions of school buses, non-public transit buses, garbage trucks, utility trucks, delivery trucks, etc.

Research On Heavy Hybrid Trucks In The United States

In the United States 80% of goods are hauled by truck. An innovative trucking industry is essential to their economic prosperity.The US government has understood the importance of replacing millions of the trucks and buses that are currently are driven on US highways and streets. So it has set up a special research program to design and develop heavy-truck with hybrid technology. the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) started, in 2000, the Advanced Heavy Hybrid Propulsion System (AH2PS) Project led by National Renewable Energy Laboratory. (NERL).

According to NERL a new heavy-truck hybrid need to feature an internal combustion engine (usually diesel, which is what the majorityof heavy trucks use), an electric motor/generator, a rechargeable energy storage system (batteries and/or ultracapacitors), a power electronics system, and regenerative braking.

The NERL new heavy hybrid vehicles, being developed in conjunction with the Department of Ebergy, and the trucking industry, aim at develop an advanced heavy hybrid propulsion system hat will increase fuel efficiency by 100% for heavy trucks (Class 3-8) and buses. Also, the project aims at meeting the Environmental Protection Agency's 2007-2010 emission standards.

Source:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory. (NERL).