I had an illuminating chat the other day with Alexis Coffey, Freightliner Trucks’ Medium-Duty Marketing Manager, about her company’s plans for producing hybrid work trucks. Production is already underway, so if you’ve been thinking about adding a hybrid work truck or stepvan to your fleet, Freightliner is taking orders…

 

According to Coffey, Freightliner Custom Chassis has been building hybrids for the delivery van market since 2003, and it’s this proven hybrid system that is now available on the Class-6 and -7 Business Class M2. “We started the concept truck two years ago, and now we’re in ‘pre-series,’” she said. “This year we could build 400 to 500 trucks. And going into full production at the beginning of next year, we’ll be talking about very high numbers. You bring me the order and I’ll build you the truck!”

 

Coffey sees the greatest potential for the new M2 hybrid in the utility market, in large part because the lift and the PTO on a bucket truck can be run silently on the hybrid’s battery pack. Imagine no more shouting between the guy in the bucket and the gal on the ground, because the truck isn’t running (The engine only starts up for a few minutes at a time to recharge the batteries when they get low)!

 

I don’t know about you, but I think it’s phenomenal news when a truck OEM like Freightliner puts it money where its mouth is and starts putting this type of advanced technology on the market. Of course it will only succeed if there’s a ready market for these trucks, and that’s where you come in. Place your orders now!

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 6:11 pm and is filed under General, Over the Barrel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.