New vehicles have LRS 'going green'

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Siuta B. Ika
  • 49th Wing Public Affairs
HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  To help the Air Force do its part in "going green," three new hybrid vehicles have been recently added to Holloman Air Force Base's vehicle fleet.

These are the first non-U.S. General Services Administration hybrid vehicles on the installation, and the first hybrids assigned to Air Combat Command, said Steve Lewis, 49th Logistics Readiness Squadron base fleet manager.

"Currently, we support (Air Education and Training Command) as a host base with two Ford Fusion Hybrids," said Master Sgt. Kevin Frese, 49th LRS Vehicle Management flight chief. "However, we just received the (Chevrolet) Silverado 1500, through ACC, as our first hybrid. This is very important because they all will help us reduce our fossil fuel consumption."

Regular vehicles, Frese explained, rely heavily on fossil fuels, and when burned, can release excessive amounts of carbon dioxide into the environment.

"One of the benefits hybrids provide is they reduce carbon emissions, because the engine is running less," Lewis said. "Hybrids have an electric portion and internal-combustion portion of the engine. When you're going slower than a certain speed, you are running off of the battery, which you could probably go about 40 miles before it runs out of charge. But since the battery power augments the transmission- output power, the engine itself can cut off when it's on the highway so it runs off of the battery. When the demand is on the vehicle because it needs to recharge the battery, the engine will reengage and provide additional power."

One unique feature these hybrids have compared to older hybrid models is their method of recharging their battery.

"The engine does the charging of the battery so you don't have to plug these hybrids into the wall," Frese said. "While you're driving its charging itself, so if you drive that 40 miles and the battery goes off, the engine will kick on and begin recharging the battery."

Because of the battery, the hybrid's fuel economy averages almost 10 miles per gallon more than their non-hybrid counterparts without sacrificing performance, Frese said.

"They compare similarly to the regular gasoline engine cars," he said. "But there is a big difference in the fuel economy. The Fusion averages almost 50 miles per gallon, and the Silverado, although still having its V-8, is around the mid-20s to 30s."

To go along with the spike in fuel economy, the hybrids also have a lower operational maintenance cost.

"Typically a car requires an oil change every 3,000 miles, but with the hybrids we're looking at about every 10,000 miles," said Lewis. "Since the vehicles will partly run off of the battery, it tends not to soil the oil, like when the vehicle is running off of its internal combustion."

But with the new technology comes a new learning curve, said Frese.

"These vehicles put out about 240 volts, so our technicians can't just go in there and probe around; they have to understand the voltage associated with it," he said. "Right now we are working on a class to have our technicians qualified to work on them. There are special tools that are required to work on them, so after they're certified, they can perform the needed maintenance."

Even though there may be only a hand-full of hybrids on the base, their future here is bright, Lewis said.

"They will allow us to reach the Air Force's green initiatives goals because of their capabilities," he said. "This is not only a good thing for the Air Force, but also, this is step one in Holloman's evolution."