Ball State will become Indiana's first university to use a hybrid-electric shuttle on campus. The services and transportation department purchased a 22 passenger hybrid-electric shuttle to arrive in December.
"All you hear as it goes by is the rubber on the tires turning on the ground," Lou George, service supervisor for facilities planning and management, said.
Hybrid vehicles combine the combustion engine of a traditional vehicle with the battery and electric motor of an electric vehicle, he said.
The series-hybrid shuttle is efficient because the 60 gallon tank saves fuel by only using 12 gallons of fuel in an entire day. A gasoline fueled bus burns about 36-45 gallons. It has a turbine to generate power and runs only on demand, George said.
At a cost of more than $200,000, the shuttle bus will service the main campus shuttle route, George said. The shuttle bus was purchased from Ebus, Inc., a company that designs and builds electric and hybrid-electric transit buses and shuttles.
Ball State's research for a hybrid bus began two years ago with the purchase of three hybrid Honda Civics. With no special tax rebates, the cars cost about $21,000 to $22,000, Sue Weller, director of facilities business.
"The price is so high because there is not much competition in the market for hybrid cars," Weller said.
She said they were bought to test out the practicality of hybrid vehicles. The cars were about $3,500 more expensive than the typical Ford Taurus' used in the transportations department fleet. The fleet is made up of about 300 buses, trucks, trailers and cars. She said the maintenance and repair for hybrid cars is about the same as gasoline-powered cars.
George said they traveled the country gathering information about a hybrid shuttle. At many of the places they visited, the technology did not perform the way they needed it to. He said they were mainly concerned with the bus operation in a cold environment.
"We wanted see how the technology operated with heat, defrost and air running," Weller said.
The best observation came when Indianapolis began using a hybrid bus. Indianapolis' public transit began using the hybrid-electric buses in August 2003. Its IndyGo Blue Line used five of the Ebus vehicles in the downtown Indianapolis.
Weller said the route was not as extensive as the one used on campus because of the loads and the constant starting and stopping, but it helped with determining the effects of the weather.
George said the department is providing extensive training for people who service the buses as well as the drivers.
"The success of the bus depends on the way the drivers handle the bus, so the batteries can operate at optimum," George said.
The purchase of a hybrid shuttle is not the first advancement toward an environmentally-friendly transportation department.
The university has a history of looking into alternative fuel methods. In the 1980s, it tested compressed natural gas and two years ago the department began using soy biodiesel, a more biodegradable fuel, to replace diesel. The university recently became one of seven schools to receive special recognition in the National Wildlife Federation's Campus Environmental Yearbook. Of the 46 projects featured, Ball State was commended for converting the shuttle fleet to the cleaner fuel.
"In terms of researching what the next best thing is," George said, "It's nice to be at the front of the train."
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