"Charlotte airport trying hybrid shuttles"

Friday, December 28, 2007

ALTERNATIVE FUELS
Airport trying hybrid shuttles
Passengers, drivers enjoy quiet engines, but cost may be obstacle to buying
more
By JEFFERSON GEORGE
The Charlotte (NC) Observer

 
As riders enjoy the sounds of silence on trips to and from the main
terminal, Charlotte airport officials hope the high cost of two hybrid buses
will save money over time.

Made in New Zealand by a company now based in Charlotte, the buses joined
the airport's fleet in October and began carrying people between the
terminal and parking areas last week. With battery-powered motors, the
35-foot-long vehicles generate less noise and fewer pollutants than normal
diesel-powered buses.

Melvin Carter, an airport bus driver for about a year, said he noticed the
difference right away.

"It's quieter, it's smoother," he said. "It handles almost like a car."

Carter began driving the hybrid to and from one of the long-term lots a few
days before Christmas. Among his passengers Wednesday were the Wallace
family of Black Mountain.

Don Wallace said he and his wife, Deanne -- along with son Bruce, 16, and
daughter Kellsi, 17 -- had just returned from San Diego and were riding the
hybrid bus for the first time.

"It's clean. It's quiet," Don Wallace said. "This is beautiful."

And expensive. The airport bought the two buses from DesignLine
International Holdings for $880,000. All but $40,000 -- from an N.C. State
University grant -- came from the airport's budget.

The $440,000 per bus cost is about $150,000 to $200,000 more than an
all-diesel usually costs, said Brad Glosson, DesignLine's chief executive.
But Glosson said buyers save money on fuel and parts, and that the hybrid
buses are more reliable and last longer.

"You can actually make that money back in six to seven-and-a-half years,"
Glosson said. He also said the life span of the electric motor is 12 years.

By comparison, most of the full-size buses in the airport's 43-shuttle fleet
need to be replaced after about five years, said Will Plentl, the city's
deputy aviation director.

Unlike other hybrids -- which run alternately on batteries and diesel or gas
engines -- DesignLine's buses run solely on battery power. The diesel
turbine engine is used only to charge the battery, which also gets juice
when the bus brakes.

The result, Plentl said, is a bus that holds as many people as other
full-size shuttles but is about 6,000 pounds lighter and gets twice the gas
mileage. The DesignLine hybrid also can be adapted for fuels besides diesel,
Plentl said, which led him to make a playful suggestion to his boss, airport
director Jerry Orr.

"I told Jerry we could buy cooking oil," he said.

Charlotte-area plant planned

While the new airport buses came from the other side of the globe, future
generations could be made here in the Carolinas.DesignLine is close to
choosing a location near Charlotte for a manufacturing plant, Glosson said.
The plant would be in an existing building, he said, and DesignLine is
negotiating an incentives package with government officials.

The company hopes to start assembling buses by mid-2008, Glosson said, with
each production line -- up to three may be built -- turning out 250-300
vehicles a year. DesignLine plans to hire more than 200 people over the next
few years, he said, and the corporate offices will move from the SouthPark
area to the manufacturing plant.

Those goals may seem lofty, considering DesignLine has sold only a handful
of hybrids in U.S. so far. Glosson said the company has spent the last year
introducing the bus to the U.S. market. That includes approaching local
governments across the country, he said, especially in Western states, such
as California, Arizona, Oregon and Washington.

"We're right on target," he said.

Plans for a Carolinas plant come less than two years after Glosson first
heard of DesignLine. He and his father, retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen.
Buster Glosson, wanted to get involved in "the green movement," Brad Glosson
said, and researched businesses that could win government contracts. That
led them to focus on buses, and eventually to DesignLine.

"This bus was designed the way a true hybrid should be," Glosson said, but
"their market in New Zealand and Australia isn't large enough for them to
take advantage of their technological superiority."

Financial challenge

To expand DesignLine's market to the U.S., the Glossons and their partners
bought the company, moving its headquarters to Charlotte in August 2006 but
keeping the New Zealand assembly plant open. DesignLine also builds diesel
buses, Glosson said, but hybrids are a better growth market.

Besides the airport contract, the company provided two hybrid buses for the
Wachovia Championship golf tournament in May, Glosson said, and has been
discussing a deal with Charlotte Area Transit System. DesignLine also let
New York City Transit test drive the same kind of hybrid that the Charlotte
airport bought; it was assigned to 42nd Street, a cross-town route with
several stops.

James Anyansi, a spokesman for the transit authority, said the 60-day trial
period ended this month but that the agency hasn't decided whether to buy a
DesignLine bus. "We still have some analysis to do," he said.

Despite the hybrid's advantages, Glosson said, the question for most
governments is where to find the money for buses that cost nearly twice as
much as all-diesel buses.

"I believe there's a desire to transition" from all-diesel to hybrid, he
said. "I just don't know if there's the financial ability."

Plentl said he's not sure whether the Charlotte airport will buy more
DesignLine buses. "We're pleased that we have an opportunity to evaluate
it."

Still, adding more hybrids to the airport's fleet would be appreciated by at
least one shuttle driver. DesignLine's bus may not have as much power as an
all-diesel version, Carter said, but he likes how it doesn't make noise or
belch smoke.

"You don't hear it," he said, "and you don't smell it."


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