UPS Takes the Lead on Hydraulic Hybrids

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The delivery company will deploy seven trucks with a technology to challenge the electric hybrid—and may point the way for more green vehicles

By Brian Burnsed, Business Week

Next year, the United Parcel Service (UPS) will deploy on U.S. streets a new model of its signature boxy brown truck. At first glance, it'll look no different than any of the company's 93,000 other delivery trucks. Inside the hulking chassis, however, will sit a hybrid technology that uses a hydraulic system in concert with a diesel engine to power the vehicle. The Environmental Protection Agency has received numerous patents on the system since 2000.

Of seven test trucks, UPS will launch the first two in Minneapolis during the first quarter of 2009. They will join UPS's 1,600-truck "green fleet," which includes electric hybrids and natural gas trucks. For a company that uses nearly 1.5 million gallons of fuel each day in the U.S. alone, energy-saving technologies are welcome. "I think we're going to be able to help the environment, but certainly it's going to be a good business decision, too," says Robert Hall, UPS's vice-president for automotive.

Scientists say the technology can cut carbon dioxide emissions by 30% and increase fuel efficiency by 50%. If they're deemed a financial success, the hydraulic components and the trucks could go into mass production by their respective manufacturers, Eaton (ETN) and Navistar (NAV), by 2011. The EPA estimates that the trucks, if mass-produced, will cost $7,000 more than the $40,000 to $50,000 UPS spends for one of its traditional diesel models. With diesel fuel now averaging $3.09 per gallon, the hydraulic model is expected to cover its higher up-front cost in three years.

Assisting the Diesel Truck Engine

Similar to electric hybrids,

draw energy from braking, but are twice as efficient collecting that energy because the braking energy is not wasted by being passed into an electric motor. Instead, this energy is used to power a pump, which transports hydraulic fluid from a low-pressure reservoir to a high-pressure accumulator. As more fluid passes into the accumulator, the pressure grows, eventually being released as energy that is used to directly power the rear wheels. The hydraulic system replaces the driveshaft and traditional transmission.

This allows the vehicle to move from a stop without taxing the diesel engine, which typically performs poorly while accelerating. Diesel engines are most effective when running at a steady rate, and lose a tremendous amount of efficiency when accelerating; the hydraulic system compensates for this weakness, and lets the diesel engine do its work once it's up to speed. This is especially important for UPS trucks that stop more than 70 times per day for deliveries and operate mainly in stop-and-go city traffic, where the hydraulic system can carry most of the burden.

In some respects, the technology represents the sort of government-backed research into "green" technologies (BusinessWeek.com, 3/24/08) that President-elect Barack Obama has suggested could revitalize U.S. energy infrastructure and create as many as 4 million new jobs. Research arrangements like the one between the EPA and Corporate America could be a precursor to significant future government investment into energy technologies during the Obama Administration. "Public-private partnerships have proven to be a more effective way for America to move more quickly to fossil-fuel independence," says UPS Chief Operating Officer David Abney.

FedEx, California Are Interested

The EPA's Advanced Technology Div. in Ann Arbor, Mich., holds 60 patents and has 15 to 20 more pending. It's a prime candidate to help carry such Obama plans forward by working with manufacturers such as Cleveland-based Eaton and helping them find large customers like UPS. "Everything is looking terrific and I can hardly contain my enthusiasm for the future," says Charles Gray, the division's director. "I'm hoping we'll get a budget increase [to] do some dramatic things."

The agency's National Fuel & Vehicle Emissions Lab, also in Ann Arbor, has partnered with hydraulic maker Parker Hannifin (PH) and is in the early stages of a project to put hydraulic hybrid systems into FedEx (FDX) trucks. The agency also has an agreement with the state of California to install hydraulic hybrid technology in public shuttle busses. Additionally, the technology interests the U.S. Army since the new engines can save fuel and power large vehicles more easily than electric hybrids do. "Our shareholders are American taxpayers," says Chris Grundler, deputy director of the EPA's Office of Transportation & Air Quality. "Our customers are anybody that breathes and relies on our ecosystem to sustain life itself."

Of course, most green technologies arrive with plentiful hype and oft-inflated expectations. Moreover, crude oil prices have fallen dramatically since topping $147 per barrel in July, dipping below $61 on Nov. 6. That decline could easily reduce the interest in green engines, especially as the weak economy constrains business and government coffers. Still, seven years ago when Eaton and the EPA teamed up to create the technology, crude oil sold for around $20 per barrel and Eaton's chief technology officer, Yannis Tsavalas, saw the technology as a hot commodity in 10 to 15 years when fuel savings and the environment would likely become central issues. Tsavalas concedes that interest in the technology from penny-conscious companies may wane. "Potentially it might slow down the rate at which this hydraulic hybrid technology enters the market," he says. "But the technology and other technologies are in that sweet spot of fuel efficiency and sustainability."

Unsteady Support for Research

Hydraulic hybrid technology traces its history to the early 1990s when the Clinton Administration launched the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, an effort to create American-made cars with high fuel efficiency. The government spent millions on research laboratories and government agencies, which then worked with U.S. automakers devising fuel-efficient technologies.

One of the most striking results, in 2000, was a hydraulic hybrid Ford Taurus that got up to 80 miles per gallon. The technology behind the vehicle drew interest from Detroit's Big Three automakers, but ultimately did not reach mass production because of significant government budget cuts and the U.S. auto industry's steep losses. Under President George W. Bush, spending on the research dipped, and the EPA Advanced Technology Div. saw its $30 million budget cut in half. Engineers were encouraged to focus their efforts on fuel cells and hydrogen technology. Gray, of the EPA, notes that research into hydrogen power is immensely important, but it remains decades from being cost-effective and is of little benefit in the near term.

Next up are plans for a hydraulic hybrid engine that will capture exhaust to further power the vehicle, and a four-door sedan by 2013 that would get 100 miles per gallon. Gray believes that hydrogen will be the ultimate solution, but doesn't want other research avenues neglected. "I'm known as Mr. Hydrogen," he says. "But it's too important for the future of the world that we don't look at all these options in parallel."

Burnsed is an editorial assistant for BusinessWeek based in Atlanta.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflas...ws+%2B+analysis

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UPS has gone hippie

[Teacher Mark 53]

Good stuff. I'd love to see big rigs equipped with this technology. My truck is a 2008 and I'm averaging 6.5 per gallon. It's a horrible waste.

[rocks 494]

Good stuff. I'd love to see big rigs equipped with this technology. My truck is a 2008 and I'm averaging 6.5 per gallon. It's a horrible waste.

hopefully this will be a move in that direction. the more that it is utilised the less expensive it will be to produce due to the r+d costs being covered etc and the more widespread it will become. i'm glad some companies are taking the step towards being hippies, as aj put it.

[Teacher Mark 53]

Good stuff. I'd love to see big rigs equipped with this technology. My truck is a 2008 and I'm averaging 6.5 per gallon. It's a horrible waste.

hopefully this will be a move in that direction. the more that it is utilised the less expensive it will be to produce due to the r+d costs being covered etc and the more widespread it will become. i'm glad some companies are taking the step towards being hippies, as aj put it.

Finding a mechanic that was able to work on the system would be a nightmare. It's hard enough to find one that can work on a traditional system without screwing something else up.

[rocks 494]

Good stuff. I'd love to see big rigs equipped with this technology. My truck is a 2008 and I'm averaging 6.5 per gallon. It's a horrible waste.

hopefully this will be a move in that direction. the more that it is utilised the less expensive it will be to produce due to the r+d costs being covered etc and the more widespread it will become. i'm glad some companies are taking the step towards being hippies, as aj put it.

Finding a mechanic that was able to work on the system would be a nightmare. It's hard enough to find one that can work on a traditional system without screwing something else up.

ya, i know the trouble you had recently. if this is the way that companies can be good to the environment and save money at the same time then mechanics will just have to learn! i'm sure that there must be some out there that are willing to be the leaders in their field. these days work is all about being multi skilled, that is if you want to stay employed.

[Niels Bohr 72]

Good for UPS! I love them. I will be using them more.

Edited November 8, 2008 by Niels Bohr