Freightliner to Embark on Road Toward All-Electric Vehicles

While school buses are seemingly not part of the discussion — yet, anyay — Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation, a subsidiary of Daimler and the provider of chassis for Thomas Built Buses, has inked a letter of intent with Enova Systems to meet the demand for all-electric commercial vehicles.

Using Enova’s 120kw and 90kw all-electric drive system (as opposed to the 25/80kw drive utilizes by IC Bus in its CE plug-in and regular hybrid school buses), Freightliner appears to be going after the UPS and FedEx parcel truck market, at least initially, as a press release on Enova’s Web site mentioned vehicles “including” the MT-45 walk-in chassis will be targeted. Those chassis have gross vehicle weight rating between 14,140 and 19,000 pounds and maximum payloads of 10,000 pounds

Thomas Built buses are generally built on the FB-45 commercial bus chassis for the Saf-T-Liner C2 and the MB-55 “Heavy Duty” Bus Chassis for the Saf-T-Liner EF and HDE Type D models. But the important piece of this news is simply that Freightliner is jumping both feet into the all-electric market. And it’s interesting that the press release is worded in a way that indicates other chassis might receive, either now or in the future, and electric drive. Does that include Thomas school buses?

Cost, of course, is a consideration as international corporations like UPS and FedEx can shoulder them, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth, for electric trucks much easier than schools can. Nevermind that all-electric buses, some say, are currently a bit cheaper than their hybrid cousins. But there are also the issues of electric offering the driving range needed by many school buses, especially those operating in rural areas and the reliability of batteries currently on the market. But the deal signals that federal investment in electric vehicles for R&D might be showing dividends. And in Thomas' case, it should be noted that VP of Engineering Herbert Mehnert used to run the hybrid program at Freightliner Custom Chassis.

Time will tell.

Collins Bus at Frontlines of Alternative Fuel Technology

By Ryan Gray

With recent statements made by school bus manufacturers that they expect an additional 20- to 30-percent downturn in school bus production this year amid the struggling economy, things seem to be looking up for Collins Bus Corporation. Today's news that company will be bringing to market a propane-powered Type A school bus represents the second first-ever moment for the nation's largest manufacturer of small school buses.

Earlier this year, Collins announced a deal with Azure Dynamics to produce the first-ever, straight-from-the-assembly-line hybrid electric drive train for a Type A school bus. Built for the Ford E-450 cutaway chassis, the NEXBUS hybrid runs on gasoline power and is already in use in Napa Valley (Calif.) Unified School District and at Durham School Services contracts in Rosemead, Calif., in the Los Angeles area.

Following no the heels of the NEXBUS is the yet named liquid propane Type A that company officials said will go into production this fall, likely as of Nov. 1 when the company begins its 2009-2010 production year. Certainly Collins has schematics drawn up, at least, as rumors of a propane-powered small school bus have been making the rounds for a couple of months. Up until now, the only straight-from-manufacturer propane school bus came in the form of Blue Bird's Type C Vision. Blue Bird also manufactures a Type A school bus, the Micro Bird, but so far the company has yet to say it has plans to transition the propane technology to a smaller load vehicle. And, for years, there has been propane conversion kit technology. But recent advances by Blue Bird in solving engine power issues and a partnership with propane distributor and infrastructure specialist CleanFUELS USA, which Collins is also working with, has made the alternative fuel more attractive to fleet owners, not to mention a 50 cent per gallon federal tax rebate and a big investment by the feds and some states.

Speaking of which, Collins is already concentrating on interested school district and private fleet customers in Texas, which has one of the largest propane infrastructures in the nation. The Lone Star state is receiving upwards of $25 million from U.S. Department of Energy Clean Cities grants for new propane vehicles and fueling stations, plus California and New York. And the company has a dealer network of 70 to fall back on.

Amid buzz that GM could go the route of offering a hybrid electric diesel chassis for school buses, but nothing concrete yet, Collins certainly appears to be taking the reigns of the Type A alternative market.

A Link Between High-Performance Race Cars and School Buses?

Perhaps it's all a bit premature, but an intriguing concept was reported last week on Wired.com.

Ilmor Engineering of the U.K. and Plymouth, Mich., owned by Roger Penske, may be known to some as a leading manufacturer of engines for Formula-1 and IndyCar racing as well as high-performance marine racing. But the 25-year-old company is also hoping to revolutionize the combustion engine market amid the global green wave of hybrids. electrics and alternative fuels. It recently introduced a prototype gasoline five-stroke engine, a new take on its 125-year-old, four-stroke cousin.

It's an interesting development in a time when increased fuel economy and reduced emissions are on everyone's list of talking points. But the Ilmor five-stroke actually promises comparable output and fuel efficiency as a diesel engine minus 20 percent of a diesel engine's weight and the nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. Ilmor also says the five-stroke is ready for tests and could be used in conjunction with a hybrid drive.

Says Wired:

...the technology is '100% conventional' [according to Ilmor] and doesn’t require any new manufacturing techniques.

Ilmor says that the prototype five-stroke engine, based on a design by Gerhard Schmitz, has an overall expansion ratio “approaching that of a diesel engine – in the region of 14.5:1.” Along with its light weight and relatively high output, the extra work done in the low pressure (LP) cylinder provides for better fuel economy.

“Running of the concept engine has produced impressive fuel consumption readings over a very wide operating range,” the company said in a statement. “This is because at the onset of knock a greater percentage of work can be extracted in the LP cylinder, giving a degree of self compensation.”

Navistar, Caterpillar to Build Trucks in China ... Are School Buses Far Behind?

The wires are rife with articles on an agreement reached between Navistar, Caterpillar and the Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Company to begin production next month on medium- and heavy-duty vehicles in China.

Caterpillar announced last year in a separate cooperative agreement with Navistar that it was leaving the U.S. domestic truck engine market, and in the process foregoing its own solution to the 2010 EPA emissions requirements. Instead, Cat is focusing on the construction vehicle market, and this week's agreement with Anhui Jianghuai will make it the largest construction vehicle manufacturer in that growing market.

Meanwhile, the deal with Anhui Jianghuai signals that Navistar is continuing to make inroads the global vehicle and in China, where total vehicle sales have surpassed thos in the U.S. during the first seven months of the year. Writes the Financial Times:

In the first seven months of this year, total vehicle sales rose 23 per cent in China to 7.2m, while it dropped 32 per cent to 5.8m during the same period in the US.

The venture is expected to be set up next month and focus on the production of medium and heavy duty trucks and engines.

It would utilise JAC’s existing production bases while deploying the capital and technology from its US partners. JAC said details of the joint venture would be released soon.

Navistar has also been working with Mahindra Mahindra since 2005 on manufacturing light-, medium- and heavy-duty commercial trucks and buses in India and for export markets. In 2007, Navistar also began producing its advanced diesel engines for Mahindra and Mahindra's trucks and buses in India.

While there was no immediate word on if any of the agreement may parlay into the production of school buses, as Navistar owns IC Bus, there has been an uptick of interest in recent years by Asian-based manufacturing companies in North American school transportation trade shows.

Gooooooooal!

While Los Angeles Galaxy soccer star David Beckham has fallen out of favor with many fans after he temporarily left the team earlier this year to play for powerhouse AC Milan of the prestigious Italian League Serie A, we had to chuckle at a doctored photo we found on the Photoshop page at Worth1000.com.

Reads the creator's comments:

"After he didn´t score for the LA Galaxy, Beckham was fired but he got a new job as a school bus driver."

If you look closely at the patch on Beckham's right chest, it appears some lucky employee at Martinsville School District southeast of Indianapolis lent his body to one of the world's premier soccer players in the world. But I wonder what wife Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham would think about all of this.

Navistar Points to CARB Research to Back Up Claims Against SCR

Navistar, the parent company of IC Bus, has taken its fight against selective catalyst reduction and for advanced exhaust gas recirculation as the right choice for meeting upcoming EPA 2010 emissions requirements in lowering nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions at the tailpipe to no more than 0.2 grams. Currently, Navistar is suing the EPA in federal appeals court as it contends the feds by allowing SCR in its regulations will being increasing public health risks due to urea, the additive used in SCR to reduce NOx in the engine that has been used for the past two decades in Europe.

The aggressive marketing performed by Navistar this year has drawn criticism from many in automotive and fleet circles, such as Oliver Dixon's "Spiral of Dispair" article earlier this week on The World Trucks Blog at UK's www.roadtransport.com. But then, Navistar offered a rebuttal by claiming that a June letter penned by Bart Croes, chief of California Air Resources Board research, to the Health Effects Institute, a Boston nonprofit organization planning tests on 2010 engines, that said that the use of SCR represents a "large departure from conventional emission controls by introducing a liquid additive containing an organic form of nitrogen." According to MYETTNEWS.com, The letter goes on:

“Some toxic air contaminants that have been identified with SCR technology include hydrogen cyanide, cyanic acid, nitromethane, hydrazine, acrylonitrile, acrylamide, acetonitrile, and acetamide,” Croes wrote in his letter. “It is hoped that any exotic substances emitted from SCR technology will be at levels insignificant to exposure health effects.”

Although we are encouraged by findings to date, which suggest that the technology can deliver significant reductions of many species of toxicological relevance, this work has also documented the increase in some emissions such as some metals, nitrous oxide and nanoparticles.”

In the August issue of School Transportation News, contributor Bob Pudlewski writes that fleets must individually decide which technology best suits their needs, but either one has an increased price tag.

The debate rages on.

DIY: Build Your Own Plug-in Hybrid?

It might not give step-by-step instructions for retrofitting your school bus, but a new book purports to tell readers how they, too, can create their own plug-in hybrid electric vehicle like the like the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid or the 2010 Toyota Prius.

Perhaps those especially savvy readers can even hold onto the hope that they might eventually be eligible for the next round of federal grants for electric battery and hybrid drive train development. Well, OK, probably not, especially as GreenCarReports.com editor John Voelker gives it less than a stellar review of Build Your Own Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle.

First of all, the book says it can help owners of hybrid vehicles convert them to PHEVs. The author is Seth Leitman, who last year coauthored an updated version of the classic Build Your Own Electric Vehicle. Voelker writes that the book is:

"...comprehensive but slightly disappointing. In part, that's because book publishing takes way too much time. The field of PHEVs is evolving so fast that you can only find truly up-to-date information online.

In particular, the book's list of conversion kits, sources, and background is now several months old. That's a lifetime for a technology whose members exchange information and collaborate to solve technical problems in online forums (eaa-phev is just one of many)."

The commercially-available hybrid diesel school bus currently on the market are from IC Bus, and Thomas Built Buses. IC Bus has both an PHEV and HEV, while Thomas has the latter. If this book review doesn't detract you, and you're the competitive entrepreneurial type, the book can be found on Amazon or in bookstores like Barnes & Noble.

UPDATE: A previous post made it sound like Thomas Built Buses was the only manufacturer with a hybrid school bus available to the market. We didn't mention IC Bus and its own plug-in and regular hybrid-electric models, which has been available the longest, since 2006, and currently has about few hundred in service nationwide. We regret the oversight, a big one.