Community Toolkit > Transportation > Alternative Transportation > Hybrid

Hybrid Vehicles

Keene, NH

Community Profile: Keene is a medium sized town of about 22,500 residents located in the southwestern corner of New Hampshire, equidistant to Vermont and Massachusetts by 15 miles. Serving as the County Seat for Cheshire County, Keene has been a leader not only politically, but also environmentally, joining the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign (CCP) in April 2000 in an effort to lower energy consumption and related greenhouse gas emissions.

Project Outline:

The hybrid truck project was initiated in 2005 by Steve Russell of the Keene Public Works Department. Keene currently runs only the one hybrid truck, but is considering replacing several other town trucks as they go out of service in 2008.

Russell purchased the vehicle from General Motors’ alternative fuel systems collection. At the time, only 1000 vehicles were available for purchase through General Motors. While currently General Motors is the only manufacturer to produce hybrid trucks, as demand increases, General Motors and other companies are beginning to increase availability of models. Below, more information on available hybrid vehicle models:

                        -General Motors

                        -Ford Motor Company

                        -Toyota Motors

                        -Honda Motors

Cost & Savings:

• With General Motors’ municipal discount of $1,000, the vehicle cost the town of Keene approximately $21,000. At the time, there were no federal incentives available for the purchase of alternative energy vehicles. Currently, through 2010, purchasers are eligible for a $3,400 tax credit through the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005.  Applications for the tax credit, which is inevitably decided on the by the IRS, are available through the Tax Incentives Assistance Policy (TIAP) website.
• While the truck itself was not significantly discounted, it still returns fuel cost savings to the town by providing more miles to the gallon than a non-hybrid truck would.

Benefits:

• According to Russell, lessons learned from this project include finding the right vehicle for the right job. The hybrid truck is used exclusively within the city of Keene where its anti-idling technology makes it more fuel efficient and puts out fewer emissions than a non-hybrid truck would. For vehicles that travel extensive distances on the highway or for the Police Department’s frontline vehicles, Keene is opting to use non-hybrid vehicles. Russell says that talks are in progress to replace the Police Department’s non-frontline vehicles with hybrids in the near future. Other lessons include the fuel and emissions savings benefits of the anti-idling technology, when the vehicle stops, the engine stops, but functions such as heat, brakes, and lights are still run by electricity. This allows the vehicle to help clean the air instead of putting out excessive emissions in stop-and-go traffic conditions.
• Russell says that Keene would also like to explore the possibility of ethanol-based fuels as an alternative, but currently fueling stations are not in close enough proximity to the city.

Other examples:

• Other towns using hybrid technology include Bedford, New Hampshire, which has run hybrid pool cars for the past three years including Honda Civics for town office building employees and the Public Works Department. For more information on their program, contact Nancy Larson at the Bedford Planning Office.

Other states:

• For a list of current state specific and federal incentives, visit the Hybrid Center website, a project of the Union of Concerned Scientists.