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Originally Posted by bwilson4web
No one here would call it a real hybrid. But it does save some fuel in city driving. Not a lot but a little.
It has gotten GM to start thinking 'outside the box' for driving auxillary systems. But over all, it is more eye-wash than hybrid and the only thing they've brought to market. Billions wasted on H(2) and this is all they have to show and a couple of custom ordered buses.
Bob Wilson
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I'm certain it looks that way from the outside. There's a lot of flux in the system inside, too so that's not too unexpected. Fact of the matter is that for the most part hybrid development and H(2) development are de-coupled. There are some common technologies, particularly battery development and battery management, as well as controls technologies, but the hybrid programs and H(2) programs are not co-managed.
It's easy to dismiss the GM technology by saying "a couple of custom ordered buses" and many people will walk away believing you, because after all this is the internet and anybody can toss out any comment and have it later quoted as fact. Fact is, we're talking about at least a couple hundred not so custom buses and the number continues to grow. Part of the lateness in GM coming to market with consumer focused hybrids is the fact that GM has been in development on several systems concurrently and has only recently focused primarily on the two systems that will carry the water for GM hybrid products. That and the dubious economics of the technology (at the company level as well as at the consumer level)
Peace,
Martin
235 Buses in Seattle To Get GM Hybrid Technology
Hybrid Powertrains Will Improve Fuel Economy and Reduce Emissions
From left to right, King County
Executive Ron Sims, and GM's Beth
Lowery, Tom Stephens and Debbie
Frakes ride on a 60-foot articulated
hybrid electric bus in Seattle.
SEATTLE (Oct. 21, 2003) – General Motors will equip 235 new buses with clean hybrid technology, which will increase the fuel economy of the buses by up to 60 percent.
The yearly fuel savings from the new fleet of buses will be equal to replacing more than 8,000 internal combustion engine cars with hybrid electric vehicles.
GM's new road-ready hybrid electric technology will start saving the Seattle area 750,000 gallons of fuel per year. If nine other major metropolitan cities adopted this technology for its buses, it could mean saving more than 40 million gallons of fuel a year.
These buses will also improve the air, with fewer emissions — they will produce 90 percent fewer particulates (hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions), and 60 percent fewer oxides of nitrogen than the buses they are replacing.
“The parallel hybrid electric system is the most efficient hybrid architecture available in the world today,” said Tom Stephens, group vice president of GM Powertrain. “In addition to bringing the benefits of hybrid electric technology to commercial vehicles, our Allison Electric Drive System is helping establish hybrid technologies as effective, practical and commercially viable beyond mass transit applications.”
Stephens and other senior GM officials presented the company’s newest environmental technology in Seattle. At the same time, they also spoke of the company’s plans for making hybrid technologies real for other vehicles on the road.
“General Motors’ hybrid strategy focuses on first applying hybrid technology to the highest fuel consuming vehicles, such as transit buses and full size pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles,” said Stephens.
Click on
Interactive Tour to learn more about the GM Hybrid Bus.
The hybrid technology used in the Seattle transit buses was developed by a division of GM, Allison Electric Drives. The Allison Electric Drive System delivers more torque, which comes from the dual electric motors used to launch from a stop, and 50 percent better acceleration than conventional diesel buses.
Seattle is not the only city to use hybrid buses. Allison hybrid systems are in pilot programs in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Portland, Austin, Texas, Salt Lake City, Hartford, Conn., Orange County, Calif., Houston and Newark, N.J.
Re: GM hyrids
kevin
Re: GM hyrids
