At a time when record fuel prices threaten to siphon money from school budgets, school bus manufacturer IC Corp. has partnered with the Enova Systems, a developer of electric, hybrid, and fuel-cell digital power management systems, to build what the companies are calling the nation's first hybrid diesel-electric school bus.

A prototype of the hybrid vehicle is scheduled to be delivered to a school bus customer this spring, though IC executives have not disclosed the name of the client. Widespread production on the model is expected in 2008. That's too late to help school systems weather the current high cost of fuel--but it could give schools leaders some hope for the future.

"Together, IC Corporation and Enova are delivering an integrated solution that allows the customer to attain an approximate 40 percent increase in fuel economy and also greatly reduce emissions," said Mike Staran, Enova's vice president of marketing.

The project reportedly is being evaluated at IC Corp.'s research and technology facility in Fort Wayne, Ind. The school bus features Enova's post-transmission 80 kilowatt (kW) hybrid drive system. According to IC Corp., that system is based on a parallel architecture that allows it to use both diesel and electric power in a highly efficient manner. It recovers kinetic energy during braking, charging the batteries while the bus is slowing down. This provides additional power for acceleration, making the technology ideal for school buses because of their frequent starting and stopping, company officials say.

"There is a lot of regenerative braking done by the school bus, because of the frequent starts and stops the school bus makes when picking up and dropping off students," said David Hillman, director of marketing for IC Corp. "That's one of the fundamental reasons why a school bus is a natural for hybrid technology."

Hillman said his organization, which only has one test unit currently in development for the school bus market, has been developing hybrid technologies in other areas, such as utility trucks, and he added that IC has "quite a bit" of experience in that area.

Hillman was short on further details, stating that a press release identifying the client and providing an update on the status of the project to date is forthcoming. But he said IC and Enova have determined that the hybrid will save up to 40 percent of the costs of diesel fuel over the 12-year life cycle of the bus.

"That's a huge operational savings, especially as fuel gets over $3 a gallon," Hillman said.

The tradeoff is that the current up-front cost is approximately two-and-a-half times that of the average $80,000 price tag on regular, full-size diesel school buses, coming in at $200,000 a piece. But Hillman said that price, once offered over to market forces, would not last.

"One thing almost all school districts have in common is that they have tight, fixed budgets, and the fact is, this technology is not free," Hillman said. "It's difficult to seed this kind of technology in the marketplace. But this seems to be an easy tradeoff--save on fuel money, and there are more dollars to spend on transportation infrastructure."