Allison Transmission Holdings Inc. has announced a new series of bus models that incorporate the latest advances in fuel economy technology. Referred to as xFE, designating extra fuel economy, the fully automatic bus transmissions have demonstrated improvements up to seven percent in addition to the company’s FuelSense features.
“Other than our hybrid products, these new xFE models represent the very best fuel economy technology we offer. Our goal with the new xFE portfolio is to achieve the best fuel economy from an automatic transmission in a bus” said Mr. Lawrence Love, Executive Director, Global Marketing, Allison Transmission.
Models with xFE are new transmissions with the same space claim and ratings as current models, but incorporate optimized gear ratios coupled with the FuelSense Max package. They have been designed to enable first range lock up, deliver significantly more lock up operation and operate at lower engine speeds in higher ranges to further improve fuel economy. “The new gear ratios work to achieve enhanced fuel economy in start-stop dense, low average speed duty cycles. Transit and city buses are the ideal candidates for this technology and that’s why we’re launching in those applications” added Mr. Love.
While individual fleet results will depend heavily on the duty cycle, testing at customer fleets on four continents and in cities ranging from St. Louis to Seoul and Beijing to Rio de Janeiro, the xFE units have delivered fuel economy improvements of up to seven percent when compared to baseline models. These improvements resulted from the new gear ratios and were independent of FuelSense features. Notably, the xFE models are also compatible with alternative fuel engines.
The new bus model for North America is designated as the B3400 xFE. Production began last month in Indianapolis. Outside of North America, Allison will offer three new xFE models, the T3280 xFE, T3325 xFE and T3375 xFE.