As I waited at a crosswalk on Brooklyn Avenue the other day, I was pleasantly surprised to read “hybrid electric” written on the side of a passing Fedex truck! Intrigued, I did a little research and found that the vehicle I saw was due to the efforts of the Hybrid Electric Vehicle Project of 2004:
The new vehicle [About the FedEx OptiFleet E700] is expected to decrease particulate emissions by 96 percent, reduce smog-causing emissions by 65 percent, and travel 57 percent farther on a gallon of fuel, reducing fuel costs by over a third.
Fedex worked closely with the Environmental Defense Fund and the Eaton Corporation at the beginning. As of April 28 the of this year (2008), 172 of these hybrid vehicles are in use; 93 of which are here in New York which have driven over 200 million miles. This feat is due to the work of other companies including Ford, Isuzu, Iveco, Azure Dynamics and others.
And you thought Corporate America was shamelessly exploiting resources without giving back!