WARRENVILLE, Ill. — Navistar says it is the first OEM to exceed five million real-world miles with its hybrid-powered trucks and buses.

“With a wide range of hybrid trucks and buses, we continue to be a leader in providing energy-saving, environmentally friendly transportation solutions,” said Jack Allen, president, Navistar’s North American truck group. “By developing clean vehicle technologies that reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, we’re able to deliver significant savings to the customer’s bottom line and, at the same time, help them reduce their overall carbon footprint.”

Navistar entered the hybrid market in earnest in November 2007 with the release of the Class 6 medium-duty DuraStar hybrid. In 2008, it added the Class 7 DuraStar hybrid tractor and has since introduced a Class 7 severe-service WorkStar hybrid 4×4.

The company says its hybrids have proven to deliver fuel savings of up to 40%.

“The continued success of these trucks on the road demonstrates not only the reliability of hybrid technology, but also the potential for significant fuel savings and emissions improvement within real-world applications,” said George Survant, director of fleet services for Florida Power and Light and chairperson of the Hybrid Truck Users Forum (HTUF) Working Group.

Navistar is now working on an all-electric delivery vehicle, after receiving a US$39 million federal grant to develop the technology. It expects to build 400 all-electric delivery vehicles in 2010 and ramp up to several thousand of these trucks annually within a couple of years.