You might not think of Volvo as a green car company. But their
vehicles' ability to run (however poorly) for hundreds of
thousands of miles with only basic maintenance has always kept
me fond of the company. After all, a tremendous amount of energy
goes into creation of a car...in some cases, nearly as much as
is used driving the car around. Now Volvo is, once again,
pulling its green cred from unexpected sources:. This time, it's
a hybrid garbage truck. They've been working on the project for
a while now...we first wrote about it last August, but now
they've got them functioning in the real world...and with 20% of
real-world fuel savings. There are two versions of the truck
lurching around Sweden at the moment. They both use lithium-ion
batteries that are charged when the vehicle makes its frequent
stops. They both can operate without ever turning the diesel
engine on, as long as the batteries stay charged and the trucks
don't go faster than 12 mph. And they both turn their diesel
engines off as soon as they