The U.S. Department of Energy, using funding form the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, sponsored the Plug-In Hybrid Medium-Duty Truck Demonstration and Evaluation program. The purpose of the program is to develop a path to migrate plug-in hybrid vehicle technology to medium-duty vehicles by demonstrating and evaluating vehicles in diverse applications. The program allows the fleets to develop an interest in the technology and understand the infrastructure for the vehicles. The participants are deploying these vehicles in the field with their operators to achieve real-life experience with the vehicles. A total of 296 vehicles were delivered to the field under this program. Two developers were able to make plug-in hybrid pickup trucks, vans, and Class 6 to 8 medium-duty utility trucks for the utility industry. The pickup trucks and vans are plug-in series hybrid vehicles that have more than 40 miles of all-electric range and another 300 miles of gasoline range. The Class 6 to 8 trucks are parallel plug-in hybrid vehicles and can improve fuel economy by up to 50 percent. These developers now have capabilities to produce more of these vehicles. The program team analyzed costs to understand the potential for future cost reductions. The team also surveyed the truck operators, with positive results.
