LOUISVILLE, Ky. (April 1, 2005) — ArvinMeritor announced plans to grow its alternative power business and has entered a hybrid vehicle development agreement with Toronto-based Unicell — a medium-duty body builder of trucks for the northeast U.S. and Canadian markets.

Senior vice-president of ArvinMeritor Commercial Vehicle Systems Tom Gosnell made the announcement last week at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky.

The fully-electric drivetrain vehicle — which will be demonstrated to the public in 2006 — will initially be a pickup and delivery truck, with a GVWR of 16,000 lbs.

The particular fleet name is being withheld pending completion of the vehicle development, ArvinMeritor said.

“This is an exciting new vehicle application for our expanding role as a true systems integrator,” said Garrick Hu, vice-president of CVS Advanced Engineering, in a subsequent press release. “We are leveraging our experience in electric drive axles and are gaining the know-how to design similar systems for other applications, such as school bus and low-floor bus and coach vehicles.”

Hu said that many commercial vocational applications exist where this type of zero emissions vehicle will become dominant over the next five to 15 years, primarily due to reduced emissions in urban environments. The rate of adoption will be largely dependent on the cost of battery energy storage relative to the cost of fossil fuel.

Asked how much of an investment ArvinMeritor will continue to make in its alternative power business, Gosnell said “It’s (about) 5 percent right now, so it will be a slow process. (But) we really have to go there.”