Eaton to develop hybrid system for
Class 8 commercial vehicles
Eaton Corporation has announced it has begun development
of a hybrid electric power system for the heavy-duty Class 8 commercial
vehicles, a category that includes refuse trucks.
The heavy-duty system will be similar in design
and will share many of the same components as Eaton’s medium-duty
hybrid electric system built for Class 4-7 vehicles, but will be
adapted for Class 8 vehicles with on-highway applications.
Fleets using Eaton’s heavy-duty hybrid system
will experience reduced fuel consumption both while driving and
when parked. Recent independent test results have shown a 5-7 percent
savings versus a conventional Class 8 vehicle while driving, and
a savings of one gallon per hour when parked. Those savings equate
to about $9,500 a truck per year in normal operation, resulting
in cost savings for a typical truckload carrier with 1,000 power
units to $9.5 million per year.
Eaton’s heavy-duty hybrid electric power
system will be built using an automated manual transmission with
a parallel-type “direct” hybrid system, incorporating
an electric motor/generator located between the output of an automated
clutch and the input to a Fuller(R) UltraShift(R) transmission.
Eaton’s heavy-duty hybrid power system is
expected to be available before 2010. |
