An Old Name and a Lightweight Bus
by Harry Hutchinson

A Fisher is back in the coach-building business in Michigan, this time with a fuel-saving bus.

It is a new company, Fisher Coachworks LLC in Troy, Mich., and its CEO is a grandson of one of the original brothers who founded the old Fisher Body Co. The new company has licensed the technology for a lightweight diesel-electric hybrid bus that it said will have half the weight and twice the mileage of current hybrid buses. Fisher Coachworks said it is currently searching for 50,000 square feet of manufacturing space in the Detroit area to begin preproduction development, and that more information will become available as the company completes its current funding activities.

The hybrid is a 40-foot transit bus, with a chassis made of a lightweight stainless steel called Nitronic 30. Other parts are to be made of the steel as well. The bus is a plug-in series hybrid electric vehicle, in which the diesel engine is used to generate electricity and not to drive the wheels directly.

The bus was developed by a company called Autokinetics Inc., which specializes in the design of lightweight vehicles and optimized propulsion systems.

Autokinetics, based in Rochester Hills, Mich., developed the bus with support from the Department of Energy’s FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies Program, which provided about $2.5 million in funding.

Phil Sklad of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Materials Science and Technology Division is program manager for the structural development. His counterpart at Argonne is Jules Routbrot, senior scientist in the lab’s Energy Systems Division, who is program manager for the development of the propulsion system.

According to Routbrot, the idea for the bus was started a few years ago when a DOE engineer, Sidney Diamond, who has since died, suggested that Autokinetics apply its technologies in that direction. At the time, Diamond was program manager for Vehicles and Material Systems, a unit that has become part of the current FreedomCAR and Vehicles Technology program.

An all-electric prototype of the bus is being tested for structural strength and other properties, according to John van Alstyne, Fisher Coachworks’ vice president of marketing.

Bruce Emmons, president of Autokinetics, has been quoted in press releases about the bus, but is not giving interviews. According to the press releases, he attributes the lightweight structure to Nitronic 30, which he said “is incredibly durable and enables our chassis designs to have significantly longer service life vs. ordinary steel vehicles.” He said the additional cost of the steel is offset by the design, parts consolidation, and streamlined manufacturing processes.

The strength-to-weight ratio of the steel permits a construction using less material, and that translates into other weight savings with smaller tires and lighter brakes, batteries, and motors.

Alan H. McCoy, vice president for government and public relations at AK Steel, said the hybrid bus was developed and announced without AK Steel’s knowledge. He confirmed that Nitronic is a trademark of AK Steel Holding Corp., but declined to say anything more.

A .pdf file describing Nitronic 30 is available on the AK Web site, www.aksteel.com, among others for the company’s austenitic stainless steels.

Van Alstyne said the company has used the Advisor simulation tool developed by the DOE to calculate that the bus will get 10 to 12 miles to a gallon of diesel fuel.

A current diesel-electric hybrid gets about 5.5 mpg, according to Alan Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum, a clean-diesel advocacy group in Frederick, Md. He said a conventional diesel bus gets about 3.5 mpg.

Heavy traffic reduces mileage. A spokesman for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority said the city uses 40-foot diesel electric hybrids in Manhattan and the Bronx, where they get about 3.25 mpg. Conventional diesels on the same route get about 2.5 or fewer miles to the gallon.

Fisher Coachworks LLC was founded in 2007 as a manufacturer of advanced, lightweight hybrid vehicles. The company said it is seeking expanded facilities for engineering, prototyping, and commercial production. The company’s chief executive officer, Gregory Fisher, is the grandson of Alfred J. Fisher, one of the brothers who founded Fisher Body Co. 100 years ago. That company was later absorbed into General Motors Corp. The new company uses the phrase “Body by Fisher,” which the Fisher Body Co. also used.