King County, Washington was awarded a landmark contract today for the purchase of up to 500 articulated buses, most of which will be powered by General Motors' 2-mode hybrid system.

The five-year contract, which could be worth as much as $400 million, is between King County and bus-manufacturer New Flyer Industries. General Motors supplies New Flyer with the hybrid system for the buses.

King County has been operating a fleet of 214 GM hybrid-powered buses since 2004 and with the addition of this contract, King County could have a total of 714 buses, making it the largest fleet of hybrid-articulated buses in history.

In the U.S., GM's strategy is to save as many gallons of fuel as possible by applying hybrid technology first to larger vehicles such as mass transit buses. Currently, 720 buses with GM's 2-mode hybrid system have been delivered to 56 cities across the U.S. and Canada, saving an estimated 1 million gallons of fuel annually. The potential addition of up to 500 buses in King County will bring the total, in North America, to more than 1,200 GM hybrid-powered, saving an estimated 1.75 million gallons of fuel annually.

Transit buses with GM's 2-mode hybrid system deliver significantly better fuel economy than traditional transit buses, cut certain emissions up to 90 percent and have operating sound levels approaching that of passenger cars. Other benefits of GM's 2-mode hybrid system for transit buses include reduced maintenance costs resulting from extended brake, engine oil and transmission oil life, superior torque, and improved acceleration.

In fact, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) conducted a one-year comparative study between conventional diesel buses and GM hybrid-powered buses operating on a typical King County drive cycle.

The NREL report showed that the GM-hybrid powered buses achieved 30 percent higher fuel economy on average when compared to the conventional diesel buses and total operating costs were lowered by 15 percent.

The 2-mode hybrid technology in these buses has served as the starting point for GM's co-development with DaimlerChrysler and BMW Group of the 2-mode hybrid system for passenger vehicles, that GM will launch later this year in the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon fullsize SUVs, followed in 2008 by the Cadillac Escalade fullsize SUV, Saturn Vue Green Line compact SUV and the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra fullsize pickups.

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