Daimler’s hybrid bus Orion VII has been making waves since its launch and has now accepted more 3000 orders for it. About 2200 hybrid buses from Daimler are already on the streets while about 850 units are being awaited for roll out. Backlog of orders comes from several municipalities from Seattle, Houston, New York, Ottawa, and Puerto Rico.

Daimler is now the global manufacturer of hybrid buses. Houston, for example, runs 56 hybrid Orion VII on their streets with pending orders for 120 more buses that are expected to come through 2011. Puerto Rico also placed their order for 40 hybrid buses.

The heart of the diesel-electric Orion VII is its propulsion system called HybriDrive made by a company from Johnson City in New York, the BAE Systems. The essential series of components of the Orion VII are the diesel engine with 6.7L displacement, the generator, the electric engine, and the storage system for the lithium ion batteries.

The different parts of the bus have been optimized for the operation of the Orion VII. The acceleration and deceleration is primarily dependent on the electric motor of the bus. This ensures greener and cleaner operation achieved through maximum efficiency.

The hybrid buses might help in gradually decreasing the consumption of fuel for any town which may elect to use them. New York City currently employs 1,250 units of Orion VII for their transport system, and they still plant to acquire about 425 units by first quarter of next year.

Daimler commits itself to continue harnessing the hybrid technology for the production of greener buses and more fuel efficient usage of vehicles the road.

The move in the House was made by passing the bill with the legislation on climate-change. The proposal will then go to the Senate before being enacted as a law. A similar bill was rejected by the Senate in 2008.

In the program, car manufactures will be able to get government loans of as much as 80% to cover for the cost of R&D, and production of highly efficient vehicles. The payback is stretched to 25 years with approximately 4% of interest. The company needs to issue security interest for the acquisition of any property using the funds.

Assembling a car using the DOE grant has a requirement of making a car that is 25% more efficient than the current standards. So performance cars, trucks, and SUV is out of the picture.

The bill is also looking into the improvement of the network for EVs and hybrids. Charging stations must be ideally constructed in garages, parking lot, fuel stations, and several stops along the highway.

The first beneficiaries of the loan were Ford, Nissan, and Tesla. Ford received $5.9 billion to develop a compact electric car. Nissan has $1.6 billion which will be used in constructing its Tennessee factory for EV’s. The $465 million received by Tesla is set to be a catalyst for the Tesla Model S in the works right now.