excellent reliability rates and significant fuel economy savings our customers are reporting and we look forward to many more hybrid deliveries in the coming years.”

Robustness and reliability
New technology can often experience difficulty in achieving market penetration due to a lack of knowledge about its reliability in real operation. However, this barrier has already been overcome by Allison Transmission with its proven GM Allison Hybrid System. The advanced Nickel Metal Hydride energy storage system has a six year target life and

thermal testing in Death Valley, California, everysummer since 2002 which also conveys its reliability, suffering no hybrid failure of any kind during this time. This means that bus operators not only experience more efficient vehicle operation and better performance but they do so at no detriment to vehicle reliability and uptime.

The future of the technology developments outside of buses
This GM Allison two-mode hybrid technology has been established as the starting point for the recently announced GM-DaimlerChrysler-BMW Group Global Hybrid Cooperation, which is developing the world's first two-mode hybrid system for passenger vehicles. In an Alliance of equals, all three partners are pooling expertise and resources to jointly and efficiently develop hybrid technology. Each company will individually integrate the full hybrid system into the design and manufacturing of vehicles in accordance with their brand specific requirements.A key factor in