Home Add to Favorite Contact Submit  
           29 March, 2024


    
Category:  Press » Education

 

California's Newest Green Product - A Hybrid School Bus - Saves Fuel, Reduces Emissions

Popularity:
         Views: 1693
2008-07-26 05:09:18     
IC Bus, LLC

Imagine the environmental impact if all of California's school buses were able to double their fuel efficiency and eliminate up to 40 percent of their greenhouse gas emissions. That's not the premise for a futuristic Hollywood movie, it's reality for one California school district.

IC Bus, LLC, the largest school bus manufacturer in North America and affiliate of Navistar, Inc. (NYSE: NAV), delivered a revolutionary new hybrid diesel electric school bus to Napa Valley Unified School District last August -- the only hybrid diesel electric school bus in California.

While most "diesel-only" powered school buses achieve an average of six to seven miles per gallon, Ralph Knight, transportation director at Napa Valley School District, was surprised to learn just how much fuel the hybrid diesel electric school bus could save.

After one school year and 13,000 miles, he was pleasantly surprised to learn that the fuel efficiency of the hybrid bus helped him reach close to 13 miles per gallon -- nearly double the fuel efficiency of a typical diesel school bus.

Based on 13,000 miles the hybrid bus traveled during the 2007-08 school year, annual fuel costs for a standard school bus would be just under $10,000 at $4.87 per gallon. Conversely, fuel for the hybrid bus costs approximately $5,000 at the same price per gallon.

"Fuel costs are a major concern to me," said Knight. "Cutting annual fuel costs in half for this bus is a major advantage -- both for taxpayers' wallets and for the environment."

Traveling about 65 miles per day, the hybrid bus typically transports roughly 60 children each morning and 60 each afternoon through a mixed route of highway and city driving.

"The children are excited to be riding one of the first hybrid school buses in the nation," said Knight. "The parents have also commented on the positive environmental benefits of the bus."

Drivers also enjoy driving the bus. To the driver, it operates similar to a standard school bus. However, the diesel engine receives assistance from an electric motor at certain points during acceleration and deceleration. The hybrid drive system on Napa Valley's bus is recharged by plugging it into a standard outlet at night or between morning and afternoon routes.

Torrance, Calif.-based Enova Systems, a leading supplier of proprietary electric, hybrid and fuel cell digital power management systems is the exclusive supplier of school bus hybrid drive systems to IC Bus. The company selected Enova's post-transmission parallel hybrid drive system because of its reliability, proven ability to deliver significant fuel efficiency improvements and emission reductions over a broad range of route cycles, and because no additional investment in maintenance infrastructure is required.

The word in the industry has gotten out. Knight says he has fielded calls from school districts all over the country asking him about the performance of this new bus.

"I've told them the truth," said Knight. "I'm very pleased with the hybrid school bus."

One of the other advantages of the bus hasn't really been "seen" -- and that's by design. The exhaust of the hybrid school bus is smokeless with dramatically reduced emissions compared to older buses operating in California. In fact, emissions of particulate matter have been reduced by up to 90 percent.

"There's a host of new technologies incorporated into the hybrid school bus that provide the improvement in fuel economy and reduction in emissions," said David Hillman, marketing director at IC Bus. "With a year of customer experience in Napa, and the additional experience gained from hybrid buses at customers throughout the U.S. and Canada, we have shown that hybrid technology is a viable solution for bus operators in North America. The volume provided by our current customer base has allowed us to reduce our prices by $30,000 to $40,000. We encourage further efforts to provide federal and state funding, such as the California Proposition 1B funds, to help offset purchase prices and provide the opportunity for more school districts and bus operators to implement this environmentally vital technology."

In the case of Napa's hybrid unit, PG&E provided $30,000 to help with the purchase of the plug-in hybrid school bus. An additional $30,000 to fund the bus was provided by the U.S. EPA through the Clean School Bus USA program and the West Coast Collaborative, a public-private partnership to reduce diesel emissions.

Schools in California can use funds allocated by Proposition 1B to direct toward the purchase of a hybrid school bus. Funding to districts to support hybrid purchases from Proposition 1B and distributed through the California Air Resources Board can be up to $40,000 per bus.

More information about the hybrid school bus can be found at http://www.icbus.com.

IC Bus

IC Bus, LLC of Warrenville, Ill., is a wholly owned affiliate of Navistar International Corporation (NYSE: NAV). The nation's largest manufacturer of school buses, IC Bus is a leader in passenger protection, chassis design, engines and ergonomics. The company is also a producer of commercial buses. All IC Bus buses are sold, serviced and supported through a renowned dealer network that offers an integrated customer program encompassing parts, training and service. Additional information is available site at http://www.icbus.com

Specialized in: Green Product - Hybrid School Bus - Saves Fuel - Reduces Emissions
URL: http://www.ic-corp.com
Print press release      Bookmark this page
Related Press releases 
Prevent Blindness Offers New Educational Resources on Uveitis and Keratitis for Rare Disease Day (Popularity: ): CHICAGO - February 23, 2020 -- In observance of Rare Disease Day on Feb. 29, 2020, Prevent Blindness, the nation’s oldest volunteer eye health organization, is offering educational resources on uveitis, an inflammatory eye disease. Uveitis is a general term describing a group of inflammatory diseases that produces swelling and destroys eye tissues in the uvea (the middle layer of the eye that contains most blood vessels), according to the ...
Worcester Polytechnic Institute to Help Develop Novel Sign Language Technology (Popularity: ): WORCESTER, Mass. - January 08, 2020 -- A Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researcher has received a $1 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant that could lead to significant breakthroughs in technology platforms for the ASL-signing Deaf Community. Erin Solovey, assistant professor of computer science, will investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of computer interfaces that will allow deaf individuals to navigate, search, and interact with technology completely in American Sign Language.Members ...
Minnesota’s Best Colleges for 2017 Ranked by LearnHowToBecome.org (Popularity: ): San Francisco - March 18, 2017 -- LearnHowToBecome.org, a leading resource provider for higher education and career information, has analyzed more than a dozen metrics to rank Minnesota’s best universities and colleges for 2017. Of the 32 four-year schools on the list, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Catherine University, Saint John’s University, University of Minnesota Twin Cities and The College of Saint Scholastica came in as the top five. 32 two-year ...
Inaugural Global CME Impact Award Winner Announced; AXDEV Group recognized for Continuing Medical Education Excellence and Innovation (Popularity: ): Denver, Colo. - February 10, 2017 -- Global Education Group (Global) and the Global Alliance for Medical Education (GAME) recently announced that AXDEV Group’s (AXDEV) “The European Performance Improvement in Diabetes Demonstration Project” (EPIDD) has received the inaugural Global CME Impact Award.Presented at the 42nd Annual Conference of the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions in San Francisco on Jan. 27, 2017, the Global CME Impact Award is ...
Student Survey of Competency-Based Assessment and Digital Badges Validates Soft Skills Bootcamp Development (Popularity: ): Vernon Hill, IL - October 01, 2016 -- Hundreds of postsecondary students volunteered for the opportunity to take Wonderlic's series of interactive, competency-based assessments for their specific program with the intent of earning digital badges, which demonstrate third party verification of their competencies.Seventy-five students who participated also responded to a subsequent survey. Their opinions reinforced the plans of the National Soft Skills Consortium that is developing a soft skills training ...


Related Business 
PerforMax Engine Enhancer (Popularity: ): PerforMax engine enhancer saves fuel and reduces emissions for both gasoline and diesel vehicles.
FuelMaster (Popularity: ): Fuel saving device that reduces emissions while saving money.
Fuel Cells (Popularity: ): Fuel Cell Store is the ultimate destination for all your fuel cell needs. Fuel Cell Store features the newest products and technologies as well as the most diverse and expansive selection of fuel cell related products and parts. Fuel Cell Store features quality products from more vendors than any other site and our experienced and knowledgeable staff is available for technical and product support, conferences, workshops, laboratory development and consulting ...
The Ethos Fuel Additive (Popularity: ): The Ethos fuel additive is compatible with absolutely all fuels: gasoline, diesel, mixing, ... it reduces the consumption of all engines by cleaning them with the latest generation of Esthers, not from the pétrole.Le product is environmentally friendly, it can not only reduce fuel consumption but also reduce releases polu. Use less gasoline or diesel fuel with Ethos.
Green Energy Project (Popularity: ): Information on "green energy" sources, energy-related emissions and their environmental impacts, and economic benefits of emissions reductions.
The California Climate Action Registry (Popularity: ): Organization created by the State of California to encourage companies, government agencies and other organizations to voluntarily measure and report their Green House Gas emissions. Provides information about the program.
Buying Recycled Products (Popularity: ): Buying products made from recycled materials saves valuable resources, conserves energy, and increases the demand for recycled materials – it’s definitely an environmental winner! The more products we make from recycled materials in the UK, the better it is for the environment. It cuts down on the amount of goods we import, and reduces our carbon emissions from transporting new goods long distances.
Never Cry Wolf Rescue (Popularity: ): Locates and saves wolf and wolf hybrid in Northern California and provides education programs.
Alternative Fuel Vehicle Group (Popularity: ): News and information of electric, hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles, fuel cells, natural gas, and other clean fuels for public, private and government fleets, cars, trucks and buses.
Most Fuel Efficient Trucks (Popularity: ): Fuel economy in any type of automobile – may it be from the most family oriented sedan to the biggest transport trucks – is typically determined by different sets of criteria. The most common is by gauging the mileage gained per gallon of fuel consumed. Other methods are through the ratio of the total displacement of the engine to the overall mass of the vehicle and the number of passengers ...