When you think of hybrid vehicles you think of a Prius which is a small four door car. You do not typically think of 18-wheelers carrying tons of product all over the US. However, a large international company has invested in just this. Coca-Cola started changing its US fleet in 2008 from traditional diesel trucks to hybrid trucks. They are slowly adding more to the fleet and have almost 200 hybrid trucks running product all over the US.
A US government organization, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), tested the hybrid truck against the diesel truck and came up with some interesting results. According to the data, “The 13-month field study, the hybrid group had a 13.7% fuel economy improvement over the diesel group.”
The report also indicated Coca-Cola was getting a positive Return on Investment (ROI). The cost to operate the hybrid trucks was 24% less than operating the diesel trucks. This indicates that Coca-Cola realized real savings from the beginning of use of the hybrid trucks.
Big companies also have lots of choices for where to direct their money. It’s nice to see a Fortune 100 company recognizing the importance of giving back to the environment one truck at a time.
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