Eaton Begins Commercial Production of Hybrid Systems for Medium-Duty Trucks
Aug 9, 2007 2:29 PM
Eaton Corporation announced today that the company’s medium-duty hybrid power systems are now commercially available and will be ready for customer deliveries in 2008 on the chassis of several major North American commercial vehicle manufacturers. These include International Truck and Engine Corporation, Kenworth Truck Co., Peterbilt Motors and Freightliner Corporation.
The announcement follows more than four years of development and 2 million miles of successful field-testing in North America, Europe and Asia.
“Eaton formed this business unit almost seven years ago to provide a cleaner and more fuel-efficient future for the world’s commercial vehicle fleet,” said James E. Sweetnam, Eaton senior vice president and president - Truck Group. “Now, we’re poised to fulfill that goal with the help of our forward-looking OEM and fleet partners that share our vision.”
According to Kevin Beaty, manager of Eaton’s Hybrid Power Systems business unit, the company plans to produce several hundred systems in 2007. Eaton is planning to ramp-up production capacity over the next three years in order to meet customer demand and achieve economies of scale.
More than 220 hybrid-powered vehicles with Eaton’s advanced technology systems have been produced to date for testing and evaluation - most of which have been placed into service alongside their conventionally-powered counterparts. Vehicle configurations include package delivery vans, medium-duty delivery trucks, beverage haulers, city buses and utility repair trucks - each of which has generated significant fuel economy gains and emission reductions.
Fleet customers for Eaton hybrid power have so far included FedEx Express, UPS, Coca-Cola Enterprises, The Pepsi Bottling Group and 14 public utility fleets into which were placed 24 hybrid-powered repair trucks. Truck body builders also involved in the delivery of new vehicles include Altec Industries of Birmingham, Ala., Terex Corporation of Westport, Conn., and others. Additional testing is taking place in Europe with DAF Trucks, and in Asia with the Beiqi Foton Bus Company, one of China's largest commercial vehicle producers. Eaton hybrid power systems in these and other applications are generating fuel economy improvements of up to 60 percent and significant reductions in harmful emissions.
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