40 mpg in the city and no battery
Cost-effective hydraulic hybrid pickup trucks coming?
By the end of this year, Ford and partner Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power and Folsom Technologies should have an F150 hydraulic hybrid prototype ready for road testing. And based on early estimates, city fuel economy could improve to 40 mpg or more.
Still, it could be several years before consumers have the ability to purchase hydraulic hybrid pickup trucks.
While hydraulic hybrids have proven to be a viable technology, scaling the technology into smaller vehicles has proven difficult so far; however, CCEFP believes it can be done. Thus a prototype should be ready by the end of this year and capable of EPA testing by 2012. Of course, if all goes well, putting such a vehicle into production will still take up to 4 or 5 years.
Likewise, as with other hydraulic hybrid projects, few details have yet been provided regarding costs. However, the lack of a large battery pack alone could give hydraulic hybrids a competitive advantage over battery hybrids.
Considering the importance of pickup trucks to the US auto industry and their popularity amongst consumers, such a technology seems to offer market-changing potential.
Source: Pickuptrucks.com