Denali Goes Hybrid

Denali National Park is testing a hybrid diesel electric bus this summer. If it works well they may replace all their buses with hybrids.

Park managers do not allow visitors to drive their personal cars the length of the park road. Visitors board the buses near the park entrance. The 92-mile road, much of it unpaved, is the only way in and out of the nearly 6 million-acre park, home to Mount McKinley, at 20,320 feet the tallest mountain in North America.[...]

The hybrid bus requires as much as 70% less fuel.

"The beauty is when you use less fuel, you emit fewer pollutants," Kladder said.

The hybrid application is perfect for park buses, because just like school buses, they make a lot of stops and starts, Kladder said.

For park managers, it's not all about money. The quieter hybrid motors will enhance the visitor experience.

One big problem with the diesel-engine buses — which drive an average of 1.2 million miles per year — is that they are noisy. They can be heard from afar in the park.

The hybrids are quiet.

"Can you imagine the thrill of moving slowly and silently past a bear nursing its cub or wolf hunting along the road?" said Elwood Lynn, assistant superintendent of operations for Denali.

I hope it works for the park service. With diesel fuel going up and up, there will be bigger demand for this type of bus driving the cost of the buses down. It will make them much more attractive to other transit systems.

Via Backpacker's Ted Alvarez

H2O Power

Japanese scientists claim they can run a car on water.

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - Tired of petrol prices rising daily at the pump? A Japanese company has invented an electric-powered, and environmentally friendly, car that it says runs solely on water.

Genepax unveiled the car in the western city of Osaka on Thursday, saying that a liter (2.1 pints) of any kind of water -- rain, river or sea -- was all you needed to get the engine going for about an hour at a speed of 80 km (50 miles).

"The car will continue to run as long as you have a bottle of water to top up from time to time," Genepax CEO Kiyoshi Hirasawa told local broadcaster TV Tokyo.

"It does not require you to build up an infrastructure to recharge your batteries, which is usually the case for most electric cars," he added.

Once the water is poured into the tank at the back of the car, the a generator breaks it down and uses it to create electrical power, TV Tokyo said.

Sounds good to me. Will it make it to market?

Short Sighted

Is about the nicest thing I can say about Detroit's auto makers. They refuse to make their vehicles more fuel efficient and actively work against making them more efficient. By keeping congress on a short leash, Detroit's auto makers are working against the will of the people.

The poll also found that Americans want Congress to boost fuel efficiency standards. Four out of five respondents, including 86 percent of Democrats and 76 percent of Republicans and independents, said that they would support “Congress taking the lead to achieve the highest possible fuel efficiency as quickly as possible” by raising the fuel-efficiency requirements for U.S. vehicles to achieve the goal of 40 mpg.

These cars are available in Europe but not the US. Of the top 10 most fuel efficient cars in the US none are made by American companies. German auto maker Volkswagen is going after the Toyota Prius with a new diesel hybrid Golf that gets 70 mph. That will fly off the car lots.

India's Mahindra&Mahindra is going to have a diesel hybrid pick up for sale in 2010. It should get 40 plus miles per hour. Detroit insists that the technology is not available to make fuel efficient cars. But they lie like a republican.

Italy's Iveco makes hybrid diesel delivery trucks and vans for Fed Ex.

Chef Is Going Hybrid

Chef has found the hybrid of his dreams. Sure it only goes 13 miles per hour. Sure it can only go 15 miles on a charge. But it holds 24 cans of beer plus ice. How can you go wrong with that? The Cruzin Cooler is the only way to go.

Party BS

I was at a party recently and was discussing this article about hybrid delivery trucks. And out of nowhere one of the people involved in the conversation started ridiculing me because there are no hybrid diesels. I did not say they were diesels. I said they were hybrids. Here is what the Eaton Corporation has to say about their engines.

At the current average diesel price of almost $2.50 per gallon, those savings equate to about $9,000 to $10,000 a truck per year in operation.

I could not find a passage that said they were diesel hybrids but this pretty much confirms it to me. I was too hasty.

Eaton employs a parallel-type diesel-electric hybrid system with Eaton’s Fuller® UltraShift® automated transmission It incorporates an electric motor/generator between the output of an automated clutch and input of the transmission. The system recovers energy normally lost during braking and stores the energy in batteries. When electric torque is blended with engine torque, the stored energy is used to improve fuel economy and vehicle performance for a given speed, or operate with electric power only. The system provides energy for use during engine-off worksite operations.

I feel better now.

Prius Cabs

prius cabs, originally uploaded by alex.talarico.

I just saw a Prius cab. It makes perfect sense to me.

Hybrids

Detroit auto makers have consistently said Americans will not buy hybrids. That thinking has bit them in their hind parts. Toyota is now the number one auto maker in the world. It looks like they may miss out on the trucking market too. The Christian Science Monitor has a good article about delivery companies buying hybrids. The companies are doing it for fuel economy and green cred. It now pays to spend more up front. I guess we will not see those articles about how it does not make economic sense to buy hybrids.

transition to hybrid trucks is part of a push by urban delivery companies to cut their greenhouse-gas emissions. As with the hybrid cars, demand for the green trucks is so strong that companies such as Coca-Cola are willing to pay a 35 to 40 percent premium over the cost of a normal delivery truck. Both FedEx and UPS are also building hybrid fleets in urban areas. In return, the companies cut their fuel consumption.

"You get a return on the investment, but more importantly, it's the right thing to do," says John Brock, president of Coca-Cola Enterprises in an interview at the company's giant distribution center in the South Bronx.[...]

The Coca-Cola trucks are made by International Truck and Engine Corp., and the hybrid system is supplied by Cleveland-based Eaton Corp. Eaton went into full production in July and says it's now ready to produce as many as companies want to order.

100 dollar a barrel oil is bringing emissions down.
Update: New link to article.