Wal-Mart Hits The Road With Hybrid Peterbilt 386
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 05.17.07
This prototype Peterbilt Model 386 Hybrid, ordered by Wal-Mart and produced by The Pete Store, Inc. is designed to be up to 7% more efficient than the typical over the road carrier. "The heavy duty hybrid electric Model 386, configured for on-highway use, is being developed in conjunction with Eaton and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. It is currently in the testing and evaluation phase and is expected to be available in 2010. Wal-Mart, which operates the nation’s second largest private fleet, is supporting development by helping validate the concept and refine the final design." TreeHugger previously posted about Eaton's role in making hybrid step vans for Federal Express Corporation. During third-party testing, the Eaton Hybrid Power System has routinely achieved a 5-7 percent fuel savings versus comparable, non-hybrid models. The heavy-duty hybrid electric power system features 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 Eaton’s Fuller® UltraShift® transmission.
The system captures energy generated by the diesel engine and recovers energy normally lost during braking and stores the energy in batteries. That electric torque is then sent through the motor/generator and blended with engine torque to improve vehicle performance, operate the engine in a more fuel-efficient range for a given speed and/or operate only with electric power in certain situations."
Operational cost savings is estimated to be approximately $9,000 annually, based on an average cost of US$2.50 per gallon. Wal-Mart anticipates that the hybrid version will help the company move toward its goal of increasing fleet efficiency by 25 percent. If the seven percent gets Wal-Mart 1/4 of the way to their goal, where does the rest come from, rail roads?
Via:: Business Wire
Image credit: Peterbilt Corporation
So... in 3 years Wal-Mart can BEGIN to replace its trucks with the 7% more efficient ones...
If Wal-Mart really wanted to make an impact, they should cover the roofs of all their stores with solar panels and maybe run the trucks off electricity. There'd be enough Wal-Marts between points A and B that there'd never be a danger of running out of fuel.
Oh, well. Better than nothing I suppose.
yeah anything is good.
how about SVO or biodiesel?!?!
Wouldn't making that sucker a little more aerodynamic help improve efficency too? Perhaps even 7%??!
More product should be shipped using rail - the trucking industry is in for a shock when gas prices begin to rise at an accelerated pace. They already operate on razor-thin margins.
Call me a hater, but 7% improved efficiency? Do they want us to ooooh and ahhh at that? Of course, considering that sheer magnitude of WalMart, that still does a lot. But how about a real paradigm shift, something we know is possible based upon everything (technology, urgency) ASIDE from the corporate will to do so.
greatslack: your idea about solar panels and electric refueling is just too sane to work. If WalMart's carbon footprint gets TOO small, they might fear people would forget about them! Kinda like poison arrow frogs.
JS: not that we want to start talking about the great evils of biofuels (as they are currently managed), but I have wondered about SVO. Aside from San Francisco recently moving to fuel buses with part SVO, I wonder where most of it goes... are companies starting to cash in on using it for fuel, or does most of it become waste? Some friends ask restaurants for their WVO and most are happy to part with it, but I know some chains (ie McDonald's) refuse to do so. Anyone know more?
To the whiners be quiet.It is a step in the direction.Not a huge one but take what you can get.When the tech caches up.Add it to all diesel trucks Including 1tons-3/4 tons with diesels.However it needs to be reliable and not break under severe duty.Which is where they are now.If they pass this test they will be more accepted tech.7 percent don't look like much.Add it up over all diesel truck's.If and when this becomes more common/viable.I would drop one in my bronco to increase mpg.
Seriously seven percent hardly seems worth it. Think about all the time and energy dedicated to designing that truck and the added costs and you are probably at a negative cumulative effect. I'm sure there are better things they could be doing with that money that would no doubt have much more benefit to the environment than those trucks.
This is already one of the most aerodynamic big rigs available and it is available with some of the most state of the art engines so a 7% fuel efficiency improvement is actually quite impressive for a big rig.
However there is already much more advanced hybrid technology available for city buses, for instance:
http://www.designlineinternational.com/electrichybrid.cfm
More efficient vehicles simply improve sprawl. As long as sprawl is not reversed, we will never be able to reduce energy use enough to survive.
http://www.freepublictransit.org
Free public transit is the beginning of the end of autosprawl.
socialscientist:
You can make a point for increased mass transit use in larger cities, but subways will never run through every single 3 person town. Efficiency and a move to green-power-run-plug-in cars should still be a TOP priority, IMHO.
Two years ago walmart's ceo said he would decrease energy usage in current stores by 20% and new stores by 30%. they've already painted the roofes of all their stores white to ease cooling costs, they've added smart skylights to their stores that decrease the amount of lightbulbs needed especially in the day as well as started covering a lot of their stores in solar panels, not to mention putting refridgerated products behind closed doors with LED lighting. they've sold 65 million CFL lightbulbs and their goal this year is to sell 100 million more. they're not only doing that but also telling their suppliers that they had better start going green or will no longer be supplying walmart. they're even offereing to loan money to their suppliers or help them out in other ways so they can go green. it's all the little things and it's trickling down. i know 7% increase in efficiency doesnt seem like much, but when you have the second largest fleet on the road that travels over 1 billion miles per year, it starts to add up.
all these facts i recieved from watching a video of John Doerr at the TED conference. check it out here. it'll change the way you view walmart. it also mentions that if walmart were a country, it would be the 6th largest trading partner with china.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/128