Hybrid and Electric Car/Bus Fleet Sales Surge

Even though it may take a few years for individual consumers to start buying EVs and hybrids en masse, manufacturer’s are currently finding that their best customers are green fleet buyers for various large businesses and city/municipalities eager to even pay a premium to switch over to cleaner/greener more efficient models. One reason for this is that EVs and many hybrid designs eliminate the need for a mechanical transmission which means no expensive transmission overhauls, a major maintenance item on conventional city and mass transit buses. In addition for EV’s they can also eliminate oil changes, differential/transfer case service, fuel injection service, maintenance/inspection of timing belts, starting systems, and proper exhaust and clutch operation.  They can also permanently omit the standard periodic replacement of transmission fluid, spark plugs, air filters and fuel filters.

With such maintenance cost benefits especially when computed over the life of the vehicle it’s not surprising for instance that Daimler Buses North America (from Riskany N.Y. and Mississauga, Ontario) recently announced that sales for their diesel-electric hybrid buses have surpassed 3,000 units and they have an additional 850 firm orders from cities such as New York City, Seattle, Houston, Ottawa and Puerto Rico. Their Orion hybrid buses use lithium-ion energy storage technology, which reduced the weight of the overall bus and thereby further improving fuel economy. Their buses also feature regenerative braking systems that uses the electric drive motor to slow the bus, effectively turning the motor into a generator to help recharge the bus batteries and significantly reduces brake wear.

US based telecom giant AT&T  says it plans to develop a fleet of more than 15,000 alternative-fuel vehicles over the next 10 years and more recently the Florida energy firm FPL Group and Duke Energy announced that they would transition their entire fleets – totalling over 10,000 vehicles to low carbon EV and hybrid models.