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http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/AmericanFlag.jpg City study finds diesel-electric fleet not saving so much green after all, recommends scrapping plan. (http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090510/NEWS09/905100367/1001)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/hybrid_bus.jpgSean Hao - The Honolulu Advertiser (http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com) - May 10, 2009

Some things are more important than cost savings. --Ed.

Honolulu's rapidly growing fleet of hybrid buses is not saving as much green as promised, and converting to hybrids has meant fewer new buses and an inventory that is likely the oldest in the nation.
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Those conclusions are from a recently released city study that finds that the "green" buses don't make broad financial or environmental sense, and recommends a halt to hybrid purchases in favor of modern, clean-burning diesel buses.

Only a year ago, city officials said they were so pleased with their 50 hybrid diesel-electric buses that they wanted to convert half of the city's 530 buses to hybrids by 2013. At the time, only anecdotal evidence of the cost-effectiveness of the new hybrid buses was disclosed, and there was no data provided to support the decision. The new report, which the city posted on its Web site, assessed the cost-effectiveness of Honolulu's hybrids and is the first sign that the city's drive to buy them may have been ill-advised.

"Today's hybrids have not performed at the levels hoped for (and promised by the manufacturers)," according to the report. "While most manufacturers tout fuel savings as high as 60 percent, in-service tests have produced results that are, at best, about half of that level. In fact, most hybrid fuel savings are in the range of about 20 percent."

The report found that some maintenance costs are lower with hybrid buses, but that the high cost of batteries likely offsets those savings.

According to the report, hybrid buses do emit fewer pollutants and greenhouse gases than conventional diesel buses. However, there is still debate over whether hybrid buses are more "green" than modern so-called "clean diesels," the report states. Regardless, older bus engines are substantially dirtier than modern diesel engines, so buying more modern diesel buses is better for... http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090510/NEWS09/905100367/1001

I'm not opposed to them keeping the new hybrid buses they have, but buying non-hybrids for now. There are many factors at play including the power of elected officials, public sentiment, and long term growth.

Just like our friend from San Francisco discovered, the long term life of hybrids is great! While petroleum is cheap right now, hybrids don't look as attractive. Let the $4/gallon gas return and then watch the numbers for the small fleet of hybrids shine. Until then, get rid of the old dirty vehicles, and keep in place the city officials with the moxie to stand up for hybrids when the time is right.

hydraulic hybrid...hydraulic hybrid...hydraulic hybrid. Just not as sexy I guess.

Keith

Let me ask a question, what do their bus routes look like?

Hybrid buses offer no significant advantage on interurban routes vs regular biodiesel buses.

Where they shine is congested urban driving, where savings in fuel can be as high as 40%, which is a lot of fuel when you consider a standard bus uses around 60 liters per 100 km on average.

You need to use the right tool for the job.

There are even advantages in the suburban routes. Its not unusally for these routes to have some padding for the bus, in case of traffic. In that case, they may have to sit for a few minutes at each stop point. Verse idoling, hybrids can save a good bit. The question is how far, how many stops, how much time stopped.

The smart thing would be to get a few differnt styles of buses and swap them out on the routes. Monitor carefully and see what tech works best where. Then crunch the numbers and pick the one or two top savers. More than that, and you start running into spares and maint problems.

There are even advantages in the suburban routes. Its not unusally for these routes to have some padding for the bus, in case of traffic. In that case, they may have to sit for a few minutes at each stop point. Verse idoling, hybrids can save a good bit. The question is how far, how many stops, how much time stopped.

The smart thing would be to get a few differnt styles of buses and swap them out on the routes. Monitor carefully and see what tech works best where. Then crunch the numbers and pick the one or two top savers. More than that, and you start running into spares and maint problems.

...but that would take effort and shorten peoples lunch breaks;)

This happened in Toronto where the TTC purchased hybrid busses which were the worst in class (because they went only by bid), then planted them in the routes with less stop and go and more high speed cruising. Surprisingly they concluded hybrids didn't return enough of a savings and scrapped buying hybrids. In an organization where a ticket booth operator can make over $100,000 a year, this is sadly not surprising to find bad decisions.