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Arena Hybrid Electric Systems, LLC (Arena) was established to take a promising hybrid electric system for trucks and buses and use commercial strategies to produce a more economically viable system. The system, known as the Hybrid Booster DriveTM (HBD), was developed and extensively tested at the Electric Vehicle Institute at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in Bowling Green, Ohio. With a target sales price of less than $30,000, the company feels the market for the system is between 10,000 and 20,000 units per year in the United States and an equivalent number worldwide.
BGSU's HBD system was developed over a 12 year period and has documented fuel savings of 30% in two prototype vehicle applications: a mid-size transit bus and a panel delivery van. Arena feels the cost of this system can comfortably be reduced to $30,000, through global sourcing of components and by creating a streamlined system installation process.
Arena believes that hybrid electric vehicle technology suitable for "stop and go" bus and truck applications is a proven and potentially economically viable product, yet current suppliers of similar systems have not adopted pricing strategies that would reduce prices to a level that would create a greater market response to their systems.