The Collins Bus Corporation located in Kansas, will begin offering hybrid school buses after an agreement was made with Azure Dynamics Corporation. Collins Bus Corporation is the largest manufacturer of small school buses in North America. The hybrid buses will be small Type A models, just as the Collins Bus Corp. currently offers.
The Azure Dynamics Corporation will be contributing their hybrid electric drivetrains to the buses. The buses themselves will continue to be built on Ford’s E-450 chassis. The hybrid electric drivetrain with be made an option on upcoming buses. The Collins Bus Corp. announced that production should begin early this summer.
Recently, the idling of buses, school buses and vehicles in general has been raised as a great concern for air quality. The new hybrid school buses will be able to reduce their contribution to air pollution, as while idling these buses will run on a battery only. The engine will not actually begin operation until the bus reaches twenty miles per hour.
The buses, which can carry between 14 and 30 people, will reduce maintenance costs by upwards of thirty percent and also have a forty percent increase in fuel economy. It will also reduce greenhouse emissions by approximately thirty percent. The constant stops and starts of a school bus makes hybrid electric technology ideal for such vehicles.
The Collins Bus Corporation stated: “Type A school buses are especially prevalent in urban school fleets where they make frequent starts and stops and spend significant time idling. These characteristics are all part of Azure’s technology focus, so Collins customers will experience significant return on investment.”
