fleet
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Montreal’s Ecotuned is working toward a kit that could give many North American fleet trucks a new, cleaner lease on life.
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Ford confirms new hybrid Explorer for police; is this how SUV buyers will embrace hybrids?
Police work may be ideal proving grounds to convince skeptical shoppers that hybrids can consistently perform when duty calls. Despite skepticism from some that electrification could add complexity and maintenance costs to large fleets, Ford confirmed Tuesday that its next-generation Police...
Aaron Cole -
Budweiser-maker taps Nikola for up to 800 hydrogen-powered semi trucks
Anheuser-Busch bet big on hydrogen fuel for its semitrailer trucks Thursday. The Budweiser beermaker announced it would buy up to 800 big rigs from Nikola Motor Company by 2025 and nearly replace its entire dedicated corporate fleet with trucks powered by renewable energy. The agreement is largely...
Aaron Cole -
UPS adds battery energy storage for 118 electric vans in UK
Electric vehicles are not only zero-emission and quieter and more pleasant to drive, they also clearly lower emissions of the carbon dioxide linked to climate change under most circumstances. For fleet operators who recharge large fleets of electric vehicles overnight, however, the load on electric...
John Voelcker -
UPS says 50 Workhorse plug-in hybrid trucks cost no more than regular delivery vans
For almost a decade, commercial-fleet managers have acknowledged that electric truck are much cheaper to run per mile than the diesel equivalents they now use. But justifying the purchase of electric trucks has been a challenge because their upfront costs have been considerably higher. That may now...
John Voelcker -
XL Hybrids adds Ford F-250 hybrid to F-150 plug-in hybrid pickups; production to start in March
The idea of a Ford F-Series hybrid pickup truck has now been around since August 2011, but its maker now expects to launch such a truck sometime during 2020. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Boston-based XL Hybrids unveiled both a Ford F-250 Super Duty pickup fitted with its XLH hybrid system and an F-150...
John Voelcker -
Anyone who remembers the epic, metallic-tasting, technicolor smog in the Los Angeles Basin found into the 1990s understands why air quality matters there. While the worst of the uncontrolled tailpipe emissions have now been greatly reduced, and the air is cleaner, the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is now the major concern. So it sounded like good news when the Los Angeles Police Department put out a bid for 100 all-electric cars for its fleet. DON'T MISS: LA police to buy 100 BMW i3 electric cars for department use (Jun 2016) After tests of both BMW i3 and Tesla Model S electric cars, the i3...
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If electric semi tractors are real, their running-cost advantage could be huge
Emotions play a big role in purchases of passenger vehicles, but fleet decisions are generally driven by numbers, spreadsheets, and the almighty dollar. And it's in the equation of overall cost where early adopters of electric and other alternative-fuel semis could make a financial killing. Haulers...
Mark Stevenson -
U.S. Postal Service urged to choose electric delivery trucks
The current fleet of delivery trucks used by the United States Postal Service have stood the test of time, but their high maintenance costs mean it's time to retire the iconic boxy vehicles. The USPS began soliciting bids in 2016 and five finalists now remain in the running: they are...
Sean Szymkowski -
Workhorse CEO: $300 million in preorders for plug-in hybrid pickup trucks
Over seven years of plug-in electric cars and 20 years of hybrids, the pickup truck sector remains largely untouched. GM sold hybrid Chevrolet and GMC pickups for a few years, and Ford plans an F-150 hybrid in 2020. A startup company now called Workhorse (nee AMP) noticed that white space and made...
Sean Szymkowski -
UK Royal Mail electric vans now entering service
The United Kingdom's Royal Postal Service has entered a new era as its first electric mail vans enter service. In total, nine electric postal vans from local company Arrival will enter the Royal Post's fleet, along with another 100 electric vans to be added in December from French brand Peugeot...
Sean Szymkowski -
Deutsche Post and Ford to build Transit-based electric van
Deutsche Post, the German mail service, has long hoped to replace its fleet of 30,000 internal-combustion delivery vans with electric vehicles. In 2014, it bought the company Street Scooter, which has since built thousands of small car-sized electric delivery vans. Now Deutsche Post has announced...
John Voelcker -
Natural gas has not proven popular for vehicles bought by individual consumers, but some fleet operators continue to find it an attractive alternative to gasoline and diesel. That's because the lack of public fueling infrastructure proves a major drawback for natural-gas passenger cars, but fleets can circumvent that by operating their own centralized fueling stations. That's the case with UPS, which invested $100 million in natural-gas fueling stations and vehicles last year, and now plans to expand that program. DON'T MISS: Audi A5 is third model to run on natural gas, for Europe only The...
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30 cities join to explore $10 billion electric-car purchase
While federal policies to reduce vehicular emissions of carbon dioxide are now back in the limelight, it's a different story on the state and local level. A group of 30 U.S. cities is discussing a major purchase of electric cars for their municipal fleets. The cities have jointly asked automakers...
Stephen Edelstein -
China to replace 70,000 gasoline cabs with electric cars
China's latest effort to promote electric cars focuses on taxis in its capital city of Beijing. The country that is now the world's largest new-car market already offers generous purchase incentives for electric cars bought by individuals. Now the city also plans to replace its entire fleet of...
Stephen Edelstein -
Fuel-cell range extender for Nissan e-NV200 electric taxis announced by Symbio
Advocates of battery-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell cars are often at odds over which powertrain technology is the more practical solution to reducing emissions. But French firm Symbio continues to experiment with ways to combine the two. It fits hydrogen fuel cells as range extenders for...
Stephen Edelstein -
One third of new transit buses will be electric in 2020, all by 2030: Proterra CEO
While electric cars continue to establish a beachhead in the consumer market, electric buses are making quick inroads with U.S. city transit authorities. Several companies already manufacture electric buses, which now operate in several cities around the country. But the CEO of electric-bus maker...
Stephen Edelstein -
GM adds B20 biodiesel capability to Chevy, GMC diesel trucks, cars
When it comes to reducing emissions, fleet operators generally have fewer options than individual buyers of passenger cars. There are fewer zero-emission vehicle options for vehicles that see commercial use, although those vehicles often cover more miles every year than the average passenger car...
Stephen Edelstein -
When it comes to policy efforts aimed at promoting electric cars, the focus is usually on private passenger vehicles. But to cut carbon emissions in a meaningful way, policymakers will have to look at other types of vehicles as well. That includes the thousands of cars and light trucks in the municipal fleets of large cities. DON'T MISS: BYD partners with U.S. firm to launch all-electric garbage truck (Nov 2016) Four West Coast cities are now trying to address that with a "potentially record-breaking order" for electric cars, according to E&E News. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and...
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Taxi GPS data could unsnarl traffic in developing regions, World Bank says
The World Bank is teaming with ride-hailing companies to alleviate traffic congestion with data.
Stephen Edelstein -
XL Hybrids gets big order for pickup truck plug-in hybrid 'upfit'
XL Hybrids is expanding its business to pickup trucks.
Stephen Edelstein -
Workhorse range-extended electric pickup truck announced for future
Workhorse plans to launch an extended-range electric pickup truck in 2018.
Stephen Edelstein -
VW 'annoyed' it won't get order for electric vans it didn't make
Suppose you're one of the world's three largest automakers. You don't offer a type of vehicle that a relatively small but highly visible customer in your home market wants. Do you have the right to be annoyed if that customer designs those vehicles itself? DON'T MISS: USPS picks AM General to help...
John Voelcker -
USPS picks AM General to help build next-generation mail trucks
AM General, the firm best known for building Hummer H1s in both civilian and military versions, has been selected by a rather different governmental agency to help create a prototype with a different kind of civic duty in mind. Postal trucks, those white boxes that deliver your mail, haven't...
Andrew Ganz