LMich
Jul 31, 2008, 4:23 AM
http://cmsimg.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=A3&Date=20080730&Category=NEWS03&ArtNo=807300342&Ref=AR&Profile=1004&MaxW=550&MaxH=650&title=0
Fisher Coachworks LLC
Fuel-efficient: Fisher Coachworks LLC's 40-foot diesel-electric bus, seen here in a rendering, could get double the mileage of existing hybrids.
Fisher Body family plans electric-drive bus business (http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080730/NEWS03/807300342)
Company's new design doubles fuel efficiency
Brent Snavely • Detroit Free Press • July 30, 2008 • From Lansing State Journal
Some of the descendents of the family that founded Fisher Body Co. are returning to their roots with Fisher Coachworks LLC, a company formed earlier this year to become a manufacturer of electric-drive buses.
Gregory Fisher, chief executive officer and founder of Fisher Coachworks, along with other investors and several other Fisher family members, have teamed up with Autokinetics Inc. to build a transit bus that weighs less than traditional transit buses and could play a major role in bringing greater fuel efficiency to the mass transportation industry.
"It's roughly half the weight of existing mass-transit buses on the market today, and with half the weight, and you get roughly twice the mileage," Fisher said. "Our vehicle uses a patented floor and roof skin that is made out of corrugated stainless steel."
Autokinetics, an engineering design firm in Rochester Hills, has spent the last seven years designing the bus and Fisher Coachworks of Troy is gearing up to be the manufacturer. The Fisher Coachworks 40-foot Transit Bus is to be powered by an electric engine with batteries that would be recharged by a diesel generator. The company plans to begin demonstrating the vehicle in about two weeks and hopes to begin production by late 2009.
But while the electrically driven bus appears be exactly the kind of vehicle that the transit industry is moving toward, Fisher Coachworks is still in the fund-raising stage.
Plus, when production begins, the Troy-based start-up will face several established competitors, such as Daimler Buses North America Inc. of Greensboro, N.C., and GM-Allison. Both already are producing buses with hybrid systems.
Daimler Buses began developing its hybrid bus, the Orion diesel-electric hybrid, in 1996 and commands about 60 percent of the hybrid market, according to a company presentation. So far, Daimler has delivered 1,300 units and has orders for 1,500 more. The company could not be reached Monday for comment.
In January, GM-Allison announced that it delivered its 1,000th bus powered by the GM-Allison hybrid system. GM-Allison's clean hybrid technology is licensed by General Motors to Allison Transmission, which manufactures and sells the hybrid transmission for a bus built by North American Bus Industries Inc. of Anniston, Ala.
But Fisher Coachworks claims its bus will get more than twice the miles per gallon of the average hybrid transit bus and says that will give its bus a technological advantage.
Fisher Coachworks LLC
Fuel-efficient: Fisher Coachworks LLC's 40-foot diesel-electric bus, seen here in a rendering, could get double the mileage of existing hybrids.
Fisher Body family plans electric-drive bus business (http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080730/NEWS03/807300342)
Company's new design doubles fuel efficiency
Brent Snavely • Detroit Free Press • July 30, 2008 • From Lansing State Journal
Some of the descendents of the family that founded Fisher Body Co. are returning to their roots with Fisher Coachworks LLC, a company formed earlier this year to become a manufacturer of electric-drive buses.
Gregory Fisher, chief executive officer and founder of Fisher Coachworks, along with other investors and several other Fisher family members, have teamed up with Autokinetics Inc. to build a transit bus that weighs less than traditional transit buses and could play a major role in bringing greater fuel efficiency to the mass transportation industry.
"It's roughly half the weight of existing mass-transit buses on the market today, and with half the weight, and you get roughly twice the mileage," Fisher said. "Our vehicle uses a patented floor and roof skin that is made out of corrugated stainless steel."
Autokinetics, an engineering design firm in Rochester Hills, has spent the last seven years designing the bus and Fisher Coachworks of Troy is gearing up to be the manufacturer. The Fisher Coachworks 40-foot Transit Bus is to be powered by an electric engine with batteries that would be recharged by a diesel generator. The company plans to begin demonstrating the vehicle in about two weeks and hopes to begin production by late 2009.
But while the electrically driven bus appears be exactly the kind of vehicle that the transit industry is moving toward, Fisher Coachworks is still in the fund-raising stage.
Plus, when production begins, the Troy-based start-up will face several established competitors, such as Daimler Buses North America Inc. of Greensboro, N.C., and GM-Allison. Both already are producing buses with hybrid systems.
Daimler Buses began developing its hybrid bus, the Orion diesel-electric hybrid, in 1996 and commands about 60 percent of the hybrid market, according to a company presentation. So far, Daimler has delivered 1,300 units and has orders for 1,500 more. The company could not be reached Monday for comment.
In January, GM-Allison announced that it delivered its 1,000th bus powered by the GM-Allison hybrid system. GM-Allison's clean hybrid technology is licensed by General Motors to Allison Transmission, which manufactures and sells the hybrid transmission for a bus built by North American Bus Industries Inc. of Anniston, Ala.
But Fisher Coachworks claims its bus will get more than twice the miles per gallon of the average hybrid transit bus and says that will give its bus a technological advantage.