[redpoint5]

I'm probably beating a dead horse, but while watching a video about the Edison 2 lightweight car, it got me to wondering why after nearly 2 decades since the Honda Insight, there are no hybrid trucks?

In the Google Talk video, Kuttner brings up the point that the more massive a vehicle is, the more valuable it is to have an energy recovery system (hybrid) to capture kinetic energy during braking. His Edison 2 vehicle was designed to be lightweight so that it wouldn't need the benefit (or complexity/expense) of a hybrid drivetrain to recover braking energy.

What's surprising to me is that the first major vehicle to have regenerative braking was the Honda Insight; a vehicle that weighs 1,850 pounds.

Given that 20 years later, hybrid technology is more commonplace, what are the main reasons why we haven't seen a hybrid truck yet, especially when those are the vehicles with the most to gain from a hybrid drivetrain?

A Ford F150 averaging 18 MPG and 12,000 miles a year burns through about $2,000 in fuel per year at $3/gallon. Hybrids are estimated to improve fuel economy by 30%, putting that same truck at 23.4 MPG. That would be $1538 in fuel for an annual savings of almost $500.

As I've said elsewhere, a hybrid could allow the gas engine to be downsized significantly so that it's optimized for efficiency at highway cruising speed, while utilizing the electric torque for acceleration. The smaller engine could then be transverse mounted making the truck front wheel drive, with the electric motor(s) powering the rear. No more drive line. Brakes would need less maintenance as the regen does most of the stopping.

Our first hybrids should have been trucks, but instead we got the smallest cars. How did that happen?