Electrifying the future

Hybrid-electric systems development is heating up in the truck and off-highway equipment industries as OEMs plan to satisfy a wide variety of customers.

When it comes to development of hybrid-electric vehicles, the light-duty guys have been getting all the attention. Sure, Ferdinand Porsche and General Electric built hybrid cars in the late 1890s, and the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius kicked off the modern-hybrid era 100 years later. But it was the really big propulsion systems of the 20^th century-railroad locomotives, earthmovers, submarines, even a few U.S. Navy battleships-that took the concept of mating internal-combustion engines (ICEs) with electric drive and put it into practice.

Today's heavy-duty on- and off-highway industries are intensely focused on hybrid engineering. From backhoes to Class 8 trucks to the heaviest prime-movers, OEMs and their suppliers are developing different types of hybrid systems aimed at a broad array of applications.