Here's a company taking the idea of hybrids to a whole new realm: heavy industry and marine propulsion. Using what we'd think of as vast quantities of lithium ion batteries, they hope to replace significant amounts of fuel consumption with hybrid technology. Maybe Toyota should get a hybrid car transporter to bring in Prius from Japan.
The Carolyn Dorothy hybrid tug was launched at the Port of Long Beach, CA in 2009 . . . So yep, 1,000's of gallons of fuel are being saved. Click on the pic & you can see the proud "hybrid" word painted on the side. Despite evidence to the contrary, you still keep hearing people say "it takes forever for hybrids to reach the payback point". Obviously these businesses' number crunchers think differently.
I took a hybrid boat over to Angel Island from Alcatraz in San Fran Last August. It was great, they had all the info on how the drive worked on it. Not sure how well you can see the screen but here is the boat and inside.
