Two-Hundred and Thirty-Five Hybrid Buses Expected to Save 750,000 Gallons of Fuel Annually
Most of the news regarding gasoline-electric hybrid (HEV) technology developments in recent years has been devoted to personal transportation, featuring cars such as Toyota's Prius and Honda's Insight and Civic Hybrid.
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| King County Executive Ron Sims makes a point as (L-R) Dave Kurscher, Air Resources Manager for Puget Sound, WA; Tom Stephens, General Motors' Vice President of Powertrain; Beth Lowery, GM Vice President, Environment & Energy and U.S. Senator Patty Murray, (D-WA), the ranking Democrat of the Senate's Transportation appropriations subcommittee listen on. (Photo: General Motors of Canada, Joe Polimeni) |
While upcoming multi-passenger vehicles such as Toyota's 7-passenger Highlander Hybrid will soon add more functionality to the HEV equation, GM's latest people hauler takes the popular technology to mass transit levels.
Seattle's King County is showing environmental leadership by introducing 213 of GM's new hybrid diesel-electric buses to Metro Transit and 22 hybrid buses for Sound Transit Regional Express. This is the largest order of HEV buses in history.
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| Tom Stephens, General Motors' Vice President of Powertrain, (right), and Dave Kurscher, Air Resources Manager for Puget Sound, WA, depart one of the 235 transit buses delivered to King County, WA as it was unveiled Thursday, May 27, 2004 in Seattle. (Photo: General Motors of Canada, Joe Polimeni) |
The two mass transit agencies are in need of replacing more than 200 dual-mode buses dedicated to both the downtown Seattle bus tunnel and grid work of streets that comprise King County's 2,134 square miles of urban, suburban and rural thoroughfares. The new HEV buses went into commission last week.
"King County is proud to be a leader in this initiative," commented King County Executive Ron Sims. "These buses save energy, and are cleaner and quieter than conventional buses for the millions of people who ride our transit system."