While sedans and delivery trucks have been given the hybrid treatment recently, school buses have been left behind to this point. Azure Dynamics Corporation and Collins Bus Corporation hope to remedy this issue by combining their resources on hybrid electric school buses. The hybrid drivetrain producer, the nation’s biggest producer of small buses and Ford Motor ompany will harness the natural advantages of school buses to implement greener transportation strategies.
Azure Dynamics has worked with Ford Motor Company to create its Balance hybrid electric drivetrain in recent years. The Balance drivetrain has been tested in a handful of school buses through Collins Bus lines in North America and Canada with positive findings for green transportation fans. Azure found that buses using Balance drivetrains boosted their fuel mileage by 40% while cutting down on tailpipe emissions by 30%.
Every Collins bus slated for Balance retrofitting will be powered by a 100 kW AC induction traction motor along with a 5.4-liter gas engine. Azure Dynamics uses a 288-volt NiMH battery pack to reduce gasoline usage significantly during startup and acceleration. The Balance drivetrain developed by Azure and Ford cuts down on wasted gas from manual shifting with a five-speed Torqshift transmission.
It is surprising that small school buses have not been retrofitted with hybrid drivetrains until the Azure-Collins collaboration. Every school bus stops and starts at dozens of places during its morning and afternoon routes, making these vehicles ideal candidates for regenerative braking. The electric launch-assist feature of the Azure Balance drivetrain will help Collins buses get started after its frequent stops. The growing number of school and low-speed neighborhood zones means that the Balance’s low-speed electric system will be used frequently. The diminutive size of the average Collins bus makes it the perfect vehicle to test the Balance drivetrain on a larger scale.
While Collins and Azure Dynamics will benefit greatly from this collaboration, these vehicles may offer greater lessons to students and schools. Teachers will be able to use the very buses that deliver children to their classrooms as examples of sustainable living. Collins hybrid buses will offer the same smooth ride to children as traditional buses without the excessive fumes produced during acceleration. In light of looming Earth Day celebrations, we should hope that other bus lines go hybrid to improve their public profiles by acting as good public citizens.
