Largest
National Meeting to Date Oct 19-21 HTUF Action Grows: Hybrid Business
Case Expands
The
largest and most high-energy national meeting to date of
WestStart-CALSTART’s Hybrid Truck Users Forum (HTUF)
program strongly signals a next phase in the move to market
for medium and heavy-duty hybrid vehicles – including
fleet interest in stepping up purchase volumes substantially.
More than 275 attendees, a quarter of them fleet users from
more than 40 major fleets, together with every top North
American truck and engine maker and hybrid system supplier,
took part in the three day meeting hosted by Dana Corporation
at their Technical Resource Park in Ottawa Lake, Michigan.
The 2005 HTUF National Meeting featured the latest technical
briefings on product status, fleet user Working Group meetings
to discuss purchase commitments, an EPA session to launch
a national program to develop hybrid truck emissions testing
standards, and the world’s largest ride-and-drive of
medium- and heavy-duty hybrid vehicles at the Dana test track.
More than 13 different hybrid vehicles were available, including
four that had never been seen before.
The National Meeting also showcased the latest test data
from hybrid field trials that shows strong fuel savings from
hybrid systems. In some applications, the reduction in fuel
use can reach a significant 60% compared to a conventional
truck, as was shown in test data from the HTUF utility hybrid
truck deployment. Proceedings, including all presentations,
will be mailed to all attendees shortly. If you missed the
meeting you can order the proceedings on line (see story
below).
As
a result of this growing body of data and the reduction
of barriers, several fleet user groups are now moving
to the next phase of purchase commitment for hybrid trucks.
The
Refuse and Parcel Delivery Working Groups now aim for
purchase commitments by early 2006, and the Utility Working
Group has started looking at at requirements for a Class
5 hybrid.
Fleets
recommended creating new working groups for service
vehicles and for funding development.
In
addition, one of the key take-aways of the meeting
was an agreement by HTUF fleets in the utility and
Class 5-7
size to pull together a major purchase interest/commitment
meeting February 22, 2006 as part of the Clean Heavy-Duty
Vehicle meeting in San Diego. The goal is to measure
interest in generating multiple hundreds of truck
orders. More details
on this meeting and invitations to attend will come
soon, but it is one of the next steps in the rapid
commercialization
of hybrids.
- Bill Van Amburg
Proceedings
Going to All Attendees
- Available to Others
The
2005 HTUF National Meeting Proceedings will
be mailed out shortly. The CD-ROM will contain
all presentations and background information
from the meeting, as well as the full attendee
list. All attendees receive the Proceedings
CD as part of their fee.
If you missed the national meeting but would
still like to receive the valuable Proceedings
information, you can order the Proceedings
on-line. The cost is $75 plus shipping and
handling. Visit www.htuf.org to order.
HTUF
Thanks Our Host: Dana!
On behalf of WestStart-CALSTART, all HTUF sponsors
including the U.S. Army National Automotive Center
(NAC) and the Hewlett Foundation, and all attendees
at the national meeting, we would like to warmly thank
our national meeting hosts, Dana Corporation, and in
particular Ed Greif and his team. The TRP facilities,
food and organization were first rate. Thanks again!
EPA
Hybrid Stakeholder Meeting 'SRO'
"Standing
Room Only" was the order of the day
as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA). EPA held its first meeting of hybrid
industry stakeholders at the HTUF gathering
to collect first comments on how to structure
a national testing protocol for hybrid
emissions.
More
than 120 industry members
attended this session, sharing
thoughts about how best to
select duty cycles for testing,
how to allow the use of smaller
engines, as well as showing
strong interest in EPA developing
a full certification program
for hybrids.
Merrylin
Zaw-Mon, director of the
Compliance and Innovative
Strategies Division in EPA's
Office of Transportation
and Air Quality provided
an update briefing on the
process during the main HTUF
sessions and invited stakeholders
to formally join the process.
EPA
will take the comments from
the first session to develop
stakeholder task groups to
tackle these and other key
topics. A broad cross section
of users, suppliers and manufacturers
volunteered for these task
groups. EPA plans to have
a testing protocol developed
by mid 2006.
Questions
or Comments?
Contact Bill Van Amburg, bvanamburg@weststart.org,
or Monica Alcaraz, malcaraz@weststart.org.
