The big red wave has gone green.

[Godiva]

Coca Cola is rolling out hybrid delivery trucks. Diesel/electric hybrids.

"While other companies are shying away from the considerable costs involved, Coca-Cola announced Monday it is rolling out 10 heavy-duty hybrid trucks in South Florida, part of a national campaign to put 142 of these so-called green trucks on the road in North America in the next several weeks.

Many companies -- from utilities to architectural firms -- are rushing to jump on the green bandwagon, and the soft-drink industry is no exception.

Coke's new trucks are estimated to lower fuel consumption by 37 percent and emissions by 32 percent -- solid figures to impress the growing number of people who are demanding a reduction in greenhouse gases.
But heavy-duty hybrid trucks aren't cheap. Coca-Cola estimates the special engines add about $35,000 to the cost, making the total about $85,000 per truck."

[hyo silver]

"Aren't cheap" can be translated as 'the initial purchase price is higher'. The fact that people are going through with this says to me they've looked at the total long term costs, and decided the hybrid is less expensive. So the headline should be "Hybrids save money!"

[Dave_PH]

That means Pepsi will follow quickly

[ZippyPri]

Originally Posted by hyo silver

"Aren't cheap" can be translated as 'the initial purchase price is higher'. The fact that people are going through with this says to me they've looked at the total long term costs, and decided the hybrid is less expensive. So the headline should be "Hybrids save money!"

Yea along with this, it is about time that corporations like coca-cola and ups are looking into hybrid technologies, there dependence on shipping things is there only business. It is no wonder that car companies like Chrysler are beginning to totally discontinue leases of new suv's for they are seen to loose so much money over the course of the lease they are not profitable to sell later. It is satisfying that we are beginning to see a shift from major corporations who we have seen in the past play a larger role in determining market conditions then our own government.

[bac]

Originally Posted by Godiva

But heavy-duty hybrid trucks aren't cheap. Coca-Cola estimates the special engines add about $35,000 to the cost, making the total about $85,000 per truck."

It does seem like the payback could be very quick on a heavy truck that puts TONS of miles on the road. Let's do some quick and dirty math.

Standard fuel economy = 6mpg (big guess)
Hybrid fuel economy = 10mpg (another big guess)
Average mileage/year = 100,000 (another guess)

Given my math and guestimates ... at $4.50/gal, they would save $30,000 in the first year alone.

... Brad

[Dave_PH]

Originally Posted by ZippyPri

Yea along with this, it is about time that corporations like coca-cola and ups are looking into hybrid technologies, there dependence on shipping things is there only business. It is no wonder that car companies like Chrysler are beginning to totally discontinue leases of new suv's for they are seen to loose so much money over the course of the lease they are not profitable to sell later. It is satisfying that we are beginning to see a shift from major corporations who we have seen in the past play a larger role in determining market conditions then our own government.

UPS, they'd have a quick payback

[Godiva]

I think they looked long term and recognize that not only is the price of gas not going down...it's going to keep going up. If you have to replace a truck anyway (I have no idea how often they do this) then starting to replace them with more fuel efficient trucks make sense.

I'll also bet that while they're replacing their current fleet with hybrids, they're also looking at what they're going to be replacing the hybrids with.

BTW I think all of the neighborhood Post Office trucks should be NEV.

[taggart]

I thought I heard recently that Coke announced substantial price increases, I guess to pay for the hybrids.

[Dave_PH]

Post Office. That's a very good one. Low speeds and lots of idle.

I wonder why President oil Guy didn't think of that change.

[pewd]

school busses.
ever hear a school bus with QUIET brakes?
i wonder what the effect on brake pad replacement costs would be to put a regen braking system on school busses, UPS trucks, and USPS trucks