Attendees at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress this week in Detroit got a sneak peak of a new pollution-saving truck for transferring cargo containers at ports.


The special cargo mover, called a series hydraulic hybrid yard hostler, will head for field testing in New Jersey next. It's a project of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its industry partners, who have applied EPA's patented series hydraulic hybrid vehicle technology to the heavy-duty truck as part of the EPA National Clean Diesel Campaign's Clean Ports USA program.

Hostlers are large, off-road vehicles used to transfer cargo containers at marine ports, rail yards, warehouses and distribution centers. The trucks spend about half of their time idling and contribute to air pollution generated in ports throughout the world.

EPA's series HHV power train recovers, stores and reuses braking power while significantly reducing idling and optimizing engine operation to use less fuel and reduce air pollution. HHV technology has been demonstrated and field tested in a number of vehicles, including package delivery vehicles and refuse trucks. EPA believes this vehicle design can improve the efficiency of the yard hostler operation by 50-60 percent.