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Texas Firm Working on New Hybrid Trucks October 2004Six engineers at International Truck Development and Technology Center in Fort Wayne are working on the electronics for a prototype diesel-electric hybrid truck, which will be tested next spring.International Truck & Engine Corp. and Eaton Corp. will provide 20 of the trucks to 13 utility companies, which will test them in a variety of environments at locations across the country. If the test goes well, the manufacturers could have hybrid trucks in production in 2006. Our intention is to give a fully integrated system to the customers, which will give them a 40 to 60 percent increase in fuel economy and reduced emissions, said V.K. Sharma, director of engineering for International Truck & Engine. The military is interested in the trucks, but this thing is driven by the utility companies; the utility companies are buying these trucks with their own money, Sharma said. The testing will be administered by an industry group called WestStart, an advanced technology consortium that brings together truck fleet users, truck makers, technology companies and the U.S. military. The utility companies will spend about $3.5 million on the prototype trucks. WestStart and the U.S. Department of Defense will help fund marketing for the hybrid trucks once theyre ready for production. The prototypes will feature a powertrain that will combine an International chassis and an International DT 466 in-line six-cylinder diesel engine with an Eaton hybrid-electric drivetrain, incorporating a transmission, batteries and permanent magnet motor. As part of a parallel system, the diesel engine can power the hybrid truck directly or charge large batteries that power the trucks electric motor. The truck has a system to recover kinetic energy during braking, charging the batteries while it slows down. This provides additional power for acceleration, making the hybrid trucks ideal for in-city driving situations with frequent starting and stopping. Part of the trucks fuel savings results from a system that operates its engine at the exact level of revolutions per minute necessary for the load on it. The prototypes, which are International 4000 Series medium trucks, will be manufactured at Internationals Springfield, Ohio, truck assembly plant. We will be doing the design, development and looking at the way it should be manufactured, Sharma said. All the engineering will be done here. The International Truck Development and Technology Center employs about 1,100 people in Fort Wayne. The company also operates a Reliability Center here, which employs about 150. | ||
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