Kinetics Hybrid Drive Challenge Boosts Fuel Efficiency by Nearly 30%
Crosspoint Kinetics, whose bolt-on hybrid technology captures braking energy and reuses it for a significant reduction in fuel use and pollution, has announced that ordinary drivers attending the Work Truck Show in Indianapolis taking the company’s “ride and drive” challenge have achieved fuels savings of nearly 30%.
More than two dozen drivers braved the cold Indiana weather to take the challenge, which tested their hybrid efficiency driving skills on a real road course in Indianapolis. The drivers experienced the parallel-electric, Kinetics Hybrid system from behind the wheel of an outfitted Ford F-59, Morgan Olson package delivery truck.
FleetCarma, a provider of vehicle monitoring and modeling technology that helps fleet managers identify the best alternative fuel solution for each duty cycle in the fleet, validated contest driver performance and showed first place results achieving an efficiency improvement of 27 percent.
“We are excited to have our results validated by FleetCarma and to demonstrate the substantial fuel savings truly possible with the Kinetics Hybrid,” said Larry Zepp, Chief Technologist for Crosspoint Kinetics. “The performance improvements we saw are even more impressive since the top drivers had never driven a Kinetics Hybrid powered vehicle before. This shows how easy the solution is to learn and operate and how impactful it can be in real-fleet situations.”
Fleets using the Kinetics Hybrid system typically see 20-30 percent improvements in fuel economy and a comparable reduction in CO2 pollution.
“The Kinetics Hybrid is an exciting option for fleet owners and managers who want to reduce their total cost of ownership with fuel savings and reduced brake wear,” said Eric Mallia, General Manager, FleetCarma.
The first place winner was Serge Viola from Purolator who achieved an impressive 27 percent improvement from baseline. Ray Haering of Florida Power & Light scored the second best improvement with a 26 percent increase. Keshav Sondhi from Pacific Gas & Electric and Matt Kenny of Peapod tied for third place with an improvement of 22 percent each.
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