Last year when COTA placed an order with Hayward, California bus manufacturer Gillig, they included 6 Hybrid (diesel / electric) buses in the order. Now that the buses have been running for about a year, COTA has released some operating numbers.
From the Dispatch article linked above: some of the highlights (numbers from diesel only engines in parenthesis after hybrid numbers)
Average Miles / Month: 3,917 (3,941)
MPG: 5.5 (4.1)
Gallons Fuel / Month: 710 (910)
Operating Cost / Mile: $0.57 ($0.72)
So - looking at these numbers: does it justify the additional $232,479 per bus cost for the hybrid?
The jury's still out. But, based on the numbers above, these hybrids are costing approximately $1,787 / month less to operate (based on fuel and cost per mile savings - respectively, $1,200 and $587 / month). If these numbers hold constant, COTA should break even at approximately 130 months. Now, the agency will need to continue evaluating these hybrids against the diesel only buses that were purchased at the same time to see if these savings hold constant or end up costing more/less per mile to operate as they age.
COTA President & CEO Bill Lhota indicated that the agency is going to continue tracking the long-term maintenance costs and look at the environmental impacts before making the decision whether or not to order more during their next buying cycle. This purchase and continuing evaluation are made possible, in part, to a federal grant giving the agency $2.1M to purchase more fuel efficient vehicles.
Additionally, THE ohio state university's Campus Area Bus Service (CABS) began receiving its new 2011 Gillig LowFloor buses this week. As of today, 2 have been delivered, and the University will be receiving 2 hybrids in this order of approximately a dozen buses. (I know this first hand, as a driver for CABS - I'll post some pictures of the new hybrids when they're delivered).