New York City testing various hybrid truck technologies, winner will emerge huge.

Here is a link to an article about Peterbilt Hybrid Refuse trucks. We were told not to refer to them as garbage trucks - they are refuse trucks. :madgrin:



..:: Peterbilt ::..

Also, the product page:

http://www.peterbilt.com/hybrid320.1.aspx

 

Looking good.

 

Although more of a battlefield solution, the Oshkosh Defense HEMTT A3 with their ProPulse is also promising

Oshkosh HEMTT A3 ProPulse hybrid drive, diesel electric vehicle Keywords

ProPulse® is an unmatched hybrid electric drive system that provides dramatic benefit for military fleet performance.

Oshkosh is well recognized for many significant advances in heavy vehicles, such as their Tak-4 independent suspension

TAK-4T Independent Suspension System-Improved off-road capability. Increased payload, unmatched combat performance.

Oshkosh MTVR – Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement for the U.S. Marine Corps

They make a lot of firetrucks under their Pierce brand

Fire Apparatus by Pierce Manufacturing

Their refuse trucks are usually on the Mack chassis

These developments are a huge step in the right direction. For a large fleet, a 20-40% improvement in fuel economy is quite significant

 

Not just civil-service vehicles, but all vehicles.

Just think of how much time is spent waiting at lights or waiting in line at some drive through. Or with the engine running while eating their fast-food meal?

And how often do you see people just sitting in their car blabbing on their phone with the engine running?

There's a lot of low-hanging fruit - a simple, reliable auto start/stop system would go a long ways towards reducing oil consumption and pollution.

 

We leave our car idling while interviewing a driver on the roadside because we have roof lights flashing and it could flatten the battery if the engine was off, leaving us stranded. An auto off system which started the ICE to recharge the battery if required would work. Unfortunately the Prius boot is 50mm too short to carry the equipment we use. There isn't an option to change the equipment, we use portable scales which are worth about $7,000 each and there are 6 to 12 in each vehicle depending on location and the vehicle. The cost of replacing the scales if there were an alternative available, would be huge.

 

Pat, that is why we should be happy for all hybrid vehicles, not just Prius. No one could make one car that does it all. We should be happy for competitors that stretch what a hybrid can do.

 

I'm sure there are other hybrids that would work. What kind of car is used now?

Red herring. A properly designed auto start/stop system will be no less reliable and you proved it by using the Prius as an example.

 

noticed you were from SI, NY. NYC government has bought into hybrid technology big time already, and many drivers and cabbies in Manhattan are driving hybrids, but have you noticed there are almost NO hybrid cars in SI? And I think we have the perfect driving scenario for it. I've had my 2010 for only about 3 weeks, and am getting 50+mpg with a little effort.

 

Only Prius, Lexus and Civic Hybrid are available currently in Australia but the Camry Hybrid is due for release soon. Holden developed a hybrid here in Adelaide, the Ecommodore with help from the government via the CSIRO, but did nothing with it. It was the size of the G8, and got over 30mpg but they never went ahead with it. A division of GM, if you're wondering.

No, they wont supply us with Lexus cars!

We use Holden Commodores, same car as the G8 but in 6 cylinder form, our scales only just fit in the boot. We also use Ford Territory and Holden Rodeo twin cab utes, Rodeos are used in country areas, they are the vehicles which carry 12 scales.

 

Sounds like you need the Ford Escape Hybrid or similar.

 

They've been available overseas for years now.
As Pat pointed out, the issue is the extra lights, computer, radio, etc. that a police vehicle carries beyond a civilian car. Even with efficiency improvements like LEDs, the police car will need a beefed up, possibly more than one, battery to go with the start/stop system.

 

Every start/stop system I've seen comes with a significantly beefed up battery and starter - if only to reduce NVH at start-up. Police cars already come equipped with a larger battery - so no doubt an even larger one than standard would be useful on an auto start/stop system especially with the long stop times the car will see to minimize wear on the battery and provide longer stop times.

 

Here is Ford Australia's web site, if you can find any hybrids please let me know.

 

Our cars are fitted with the police pack, which includes FE2 suspension, bigger brakes and a beefed up electrical system including an extra battery.
We looked at LED light bars, they just aren't there yet.

 

I bet here I could buy a brand new V8 Holden Commodore SS ... I mean "Pontiac G8" cheaper than your V6 patrol car. They had rebates on this summer for the V8 Commodore SS .... I mean "Pontiac G8" which brought the price down to $30,000 Cdn

All the new vehicles (Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, Chevy Tahoe and Suburban, Dodge Charger) that I get to drive as part of my Critical Infrastructure work, are equipped with LED lightbars. They are much more visible than rotating beacons, and just as visible as strobes, with lower power consumption and longer life

I've driven a Dodge Charger with a front package of Axixtech Stealth, very similar to this one

Another Charger equipped like this one, except ours didn't have mirror lights

The Suburban I had to drive very briefly, was white but otherwise equipped like this one

On an mostly empty road at night, I hit the switch and the result was dazzling. I'm not sure if the LED's can handle extreme heat though, and their price is still pretty steep