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It looks as though Brown has a good reason to go green.


A half-dozen hybrid-electric United Parcel Service delivery vans got 29% better gas mileage than conventional diesel trucks and an overall 15 percent reduction in operating costs per mile, according to a year-long study funded by the U.S. Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.


The savings reportedly were a factor in UPS' recent order of 200 hybrid vans.


The UPS hybrid delivery vans in the test achieved an average of 13.1 miles per gallon over the course of a year, compared with 10.2 miles per gallon for traditional diesel vans. Both hybrid and conventional vans use the same mode of four-cylinder Mercedes-Benz engine, NREL said.


Savings such as those founding the hybrid van study are critical in an industry that counts profit and loss in terms of pennies per mile.


With the improved gas mileage and reduced maintenance costs, the per-mile operating expenses for the hybrid vans were 15 percent less than the traditional vans, even though the hybrids had more downtime - one of every 22 days versus one in 143 days for the conventional models.  



The increased downtime came largely from delays while waiting for repair or delivery of prototype hybrid powertrain parts not yet being mass produced, according to the NREL study. The national laboratory plans a second-generation UPS hybrid fleet study in 2010 to look at more-advanced versions of the hybrid system developed by Eaton Corp.


Hybrid-electric and all-electric engines have been gradually making their way into U.S. delivery trucks as businesses look to cut fuel costs and boost their environmental profile while benefiting from government subsidies. Smith Electric Vehicles U.S. said companies such as Coca-Cola and AT&T have been ordering its mid-sized trucks, which have ranges of between about 50 and 120 miles.


In a separate test, the UPS hybrid vans were found to generate 25% less carbon dioxide emissions and 55% less particulate matter emissions that the conventional diesel trucks, according to NREL
 
Like competitor FedEx, Atlanta-based UPS has been looking to expand its fleet of alternative-fuel vehicles. UPS, with 1,800 facilities and global revenue of $51.5 billion in 2008, ramped up its hybrid-truck inventory to about 250 from 50 after the NREL test began.


About 1,700 of UPS's approximately 95,000 trucks, cars, motorcycles and tractors are powered with alternative fuels or powerplants, according to the company.


Meanwhile, FedEx says it has about 325 hybrid-electric and electric vehicles and more than 1,800 alternative-fuel vehicles worldwide.


"NREL's report on the performance of our hybrid delivery vehicles is helping make this type of energy-efficient vehicle a standard in the industry," said Robert Hall, UPS director of maintenance and engineering.



In addition to the Mercedes-Benz diesel motors, UPS' hybrid trucks, which were tested against diesel trucks in the Phoenix area, include an electric propulsion system developed by Eaton using funds from the energy department's $7.5 million Advanced Heavy Hybrid Propulsion System program. The Eaton system uses lithium-ion batteries with 1.8 kilowatt-hours of energy storage capacity.


Danny King, Contributor

Tags: Diesel, Emissions, Fuel Economy, Hybrid, Mercedes-Benz, Hybrid Van Study, NREL, UPS, UPS Hybrids

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Hybrid Vans Mean Bigger Savings, Lower Emissions For UPS Fleet was originally published by Green Car Advisor. Read the full story by clicking here.