Stimulus Spending Brings Hybrid Buses
Since the passing of the Stimulus Bill, there hasn’t been too much actual spending going on, as the proliferation of funds from federal to state governments takes time. One of the big beneficiaries of the spending is public transportation, and the money has allowed a lot of smaller cities to begin purchasing hybrid buses that will help to minimize mass transit’s reliance on fossil fuels.
Larger cities have already been integrating hybrid buses into their fleets for the past few years. New York City, for example, already has more than 1,000 hybrid buses and have orders to receive another 850 by the end of 2010. It is in smaller cities where the stimulus money will have the most effect. Hybrid buses can cost as much as $600,000, which is generally about $200,000 more than their diesel-powered counterparts. This cost put hybrids out of reach of many transit systems. The savings from purchasing hybrid buses are significant, however. Daimler Bus North America, one of the largest producers of hybrid buses in the country, estimates that a hybrid bus saves 30,000 gallons of diesel fuel over the lifetime of the vehicle.
While diesel prices are relatively low at the moment of this writing, industry analysts expect those prices to increase in the coming years. As prices increase, the fuel savings from switching to hybrid buses will become even greater. However, hybrid bus manufacturers are facing a large backlog of vehicles thanks to all of these orders. Many cities will receive buses by 2010, but some may have to wait until mid- to late-2011.A American Werewolf in Londonn the movie
May 11th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
[...] month, we looked at how funding from the Stimulus Bill was allowing cities to purchase hybrid buses that were previously out of their price range. The idea was that the spending would stimulate job [...]