Now have an environment-friendly travel. In what can be treated as a step towards government’s endeavor to fight pollution by vehicles, Volvo announced the launch of its new entry into the diesel-electric hybrid bus market. The hybrid Volvo 7700 is a 12-meter low-floor city bus that gets up to 30 percent better fuel economy and emits 40 to 50 percent less nitrous oxide and 30 percent less carbon, the company said. In addition, a smaller engine and nearly a third of the bus’ components are developed in-house by Volvo.
The hybrid Volvo 7700 uses “parallel hybrid” technology which allows the bus to be powered by either the electric motor or the diesel engine or both at the same time. I-SAM, the company’s hybrid technology, plans to use the same technology in its trucks and construction equipment after the buses go into mass production in 2010. Though the hybrid bus weighs more or less the same as a diesel-driven bus, it has a better weight distribution, which allows the hybrid bus to take more passengers than a comparable diesel bus. As a result, the bus’ performance is enhanced and fuel consumption is reduced.

According to a report by United Press International, the first of Volvo’s hybrid buses will begin testing on city streets in London and Gothenburg, Sweden, later this fall. Volvo is believed to start delivering hybrid diesel electric buses to customers in 2009 with mass production beginning in 2010.

Via igreenspot