FedEx to Launch Commercial Hybrid-Electric Vans from Iveco in Europe
22 October 2007
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| The new FedEx hybrid, based on the Daily. |
FedEx Express (FedEx), a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. and the world’s largest express transportation company, will introduce 10 diesel hybrid-electric delivery vehicles to its European fleet, bringing the worldwide total of hybrid vehicles in revenue service at FedEx to more than 100 in North America, Asia and, now, Europe. The hybrid will be unveiled at the European Road Transport Show in Amsterdam, 24 October through 3 November.
The vans, manufactured by Iveco and based on the Daily transport van, will initially be trialed close to the manufacturer’s site in Turin, Italy, and will be the first hybrid-electric/diesel vehicles operated by FedEx in Europe. FedEx currently operates hybrid vehicles in the US, Canada and Japan.
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| Components of the Daily Hybrid powertrain. Click to enlarge. |
The Daily Hybrid combines a diesel engine with a Bosch motor and electronics and a ZF transmission in an inline parallel configuration. The battery pack is from Johnson Controls. Iveco will provide a larger capacity battery-pack for all-electric, plug-in zero-emission vehicle operation at customer request. The company is targeted approximately a 30% reduction in fuel consumption (based on operating cycle) with the standard Daily Hybrid.
In 2006, Iveco, a Fiat Group company and a major global manufacturer of commercial vehicles, provided two hybrid versions of its Daily transport van to Gruppo Torinese Trasporti (GTT), the company that runs public transport in and around Turin, for use during the Olympics. (Earlier post.)
The Daily Ecodriver (Energy COnversion and DRIVeline Efficient Reengineering) parallel hybrid used an axially mounted 45 kW, 240 Nm motor/generator interconnected via two clutches to a downsized 2.3-liter diesel engine (the F1A rather than the 3.0-liter F1C) and to an automated-manual transmission. (Fiat has filed a patent on the motor/generator with the double clutch lay-out.)
In 2004, FedEx Express introduced the FedEx OptiFleet E700, an environmentally-superior delivery truck, into its delivery fleet. FedEx now has 95 hybrid-electric vehicles in service worldwide that have traveled more than one million miles, and has the largest fleet of hybrid-electric delivery vehicles of any transportation company within the United States. (Earlier post.)
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I think FedX is helping to lead the way in green car fleets. I am hopeful that by their example that maybe the United States Post Office will get into the game in a large way. Could you imagine if they did how much energy would be conserved? Then if the giants in industry would start replacing their fleets with green friendly transportation the savings in energy alone would be impressive let alone the reduced damage to our ecosystem.
Eric Johnston
SuperiorElectronicsStore.com
Posted by: Eric Johnston | 15 February 2011 at 06:31 AM