Hybrids for commerce

Though they represent a fraction of the Japanese hybrid fleet, the four Japanese commercial-vehicle manufacturers offer diesel-electric hybrid trucks and buses that are on the leading edge of the technology.

Among Japan's in-use vehicle population of about 74.7 million units in 2004, hybrids accounted for 196,800, according to Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) statistics. They are largely passenger cars, and mostly three generations of Toyota's Prius, with Honda's two generations of Civic Hybrid occupying the honorable yet distant runner-up position. The hybrid's growth is nonetheless phenomenal, from 1996's mere 200 vehicles, to 3700 in the following year when the first-generation Prius was launched, to 50,400 in 2000, and now reaching a quarter of a million.

The percentage of hybrid commercial vehicles is even smaller. JAMA cites “2004 FY shipments” of 1209 trucks and 35 buses, indeed sake-cup-size drops in the 550,000 and 18,000 unit lakes-if not seas-respectively. Yet the four Japanese commercial-vehicle manufactures-Hino, Isuzu, Nissan Diesel, and Mitsubishi Fuso-all offer diesel-electric hybrids.