A cute little kiwi-designed (from New Zealand, that is) bus is zipping passengers up and down 42nd street in NYC this week as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority puts the machine through a trial run.
The DesignLine hybrid bus differs from typical hybrid bus lines. Rather than running on a mixture of electric battery power and a combustion engine (gas or diesel), this "series hybrid" runs of off electric power all of the time. The bus’ diesel engine is only used to charge up the battery when needed. The battery also gets a boost from regenerative braking, common in most existing hybrid systems.
The diesel engine also differs from typical motors – it’s a fancy diesel turbine. This new setup gets approximately 7 miles per gallon, which is twice as good as hybrid buses currently in use.
New York Transit currently runs 4,400 buses, 600 of which are diesel-hybrids. They’re testing the DesignLine model for 2 months before deciding whether to add them to the fleet.
Via New York Times
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:-\ Baroness eh? I think assault is worse than running a light.