Commercial Trucks Are Going To Be Greener and Cleaner

Trucks—they are always labeled as the gas guzzlers of the worst kind!

They are often portrayed as the fuel sucking, emission making, noise-creating monsters!

Yet you can not do without them!

From deliveries to moving things - they are needed in every step of day-to-day life. Road transport without trucks is just inconceivable.

But one manufacturer has dared to dream of more environment friendly trucks; last Thursday Cleveland-based Eaton Corporation came out with the formal announcement that its medium-duty hybrid power systems are now commercially available. With their new technology, the company promises to turn these gas-guzzling vehicles into more fuel efficient hybrids!

Trucks and hybrids! How could Eaton do this?

The Eaton Powertrain design is based on parallel hybrid architecture with Eaton’s Fuller UltraShift automated transmission. The system involves an electric motor/generator, which is mounted between the output of an automated clutch unit and the input of the transmission.

What does the Eaton hybrid Powertrain expect to achieve?

The system’s major achievement involves the recovery of lost energy during braking; the recovered energy is stored in batteries for future use. Stored energy works for improved fuel economy and vehicle performance for a given speed or used to operate the vehicle with electric power only. The system also provides energy for use during engine-off worksite operations. In a nutshell, the application:

• Reduces fuel consumption
• Reduces emission
• Reduces costs

From the workshops to the roads—the outcome

The system is basically designed to support diesel-powered trucks. Since the system is designed to include regenerative braking capability, it can be effectively adopted by the vehicles like school buses, beverage haulers, utility repair trucks, garbage trucks and others that involve an extensive stop and go duty cycle.

The launch of this hybrid system was followed by more than four years of research and two million miles of successful field-testing in North America, Europe and Asia. Eaton’s fleet customers include such coveted names as FedEx Express, UPS, Coca-Cola Enterprises and The Pepsi Bottling Group. They all have reported 40 to 60 percent fuel economy gains and emission reductions and significant reductions in noise too.

The company has set for itself a production target of several hundred units; these units are going to be installed on several commercial vehicles. The installation will be starting from 2008 by international truck makers like Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner Corp. and others.

However, the company expects to find a large market in the developing nations like China, where trucks make up a significant part of road transport.

Presently Eaton research and development wing is busy working on a diesel-hydraulic power system that would replace a truck’s traditional drive train and transmission.

Encouraging the citizens to use more environment friendly cars is fine. But the government also has the responsibility to set the example and this is exactly what is going to be done; the hybrid prototypes of Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT A3) developed by Oshkosh are going to take place of thousands of U.S. Army and Marine heavy tactical vehicles.

As a part of $55 million research contract bagged in 2003 from the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) Lifecycle Management Command, Oshkosh has been engaged in developing the eight-wheel, 13-ton A3.

These Oshkosh hybrid heavy weight trucks use lot lesser fuel— almost 20 percent lesser— than their traditional fuel guzzling siblings. They also bring 100 kilowatts of exportable power.  Instead of a standard drive train, the truck’s diesel engine drives a generator. The generator in turn powers an electric motor on each of the eight wheels. While put in parking gear, the generator is capable of running a command-and-control center or field hospital. It stores electricity in an ultracapacitor which does not weigh more than typical batteries; this keeps up its efficiency in freezing and extremely hot conditions.

The coming months will determine the fate of HEMMT A3s when their constructional superiority will be judged by the army officials over a 10,000 miles of on- and off-road testing at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Aberdeen, Md. This will clear all doubts whether these hybrid tactical trucks are sturdy enough to withstand the realities of battle grounds.

The construction of the current batch of A3s is being built by strictly considering the factors of military ruggedness. They are built on a 20-year life expectancy. Joaquin Salas, Oshkosh’s defense marketing manager sums up the advantages of this 8 wheel mobility tactical trucks in this way:

“The truck provides an advanced capability that it sets apart from any current vehicle on the battlefield whether you are talking about power, fuel savings or the ability to off-load a C-130”.

Thus the army seems to have enough reasons to be upbeat about this new generation of hybrid military trucks. Reducing fuel consumption, the HEMMT A3s are expected to considerably slash off military’s logistic budgets; the on-board electric generators ensure greater flexibility too.

As of us, there is no reason why we should not look forward to the production of commercial vehicles using the same technology.