Alvin, your Orion bus may not be the best in electric/battery mode but consider the typical person in a conventional 'car'. As in most big cities, it has become virtually impossible to drive across my little city on Canada's west coast during lunch time and rush 'hours'. I don't drive at those times because of the huge amount of idling - in fact, many people are turning their engines off and on multiple times to save fuel. I just paid $75 Cdn to fill our 96 Disco (we drive it the absolute minimum now). We simply must get hybrids onto the roads asap. Apparently, Ford has got itself into a pickle over its leased electric Ranger pickups in california. People love them but Ford is insisting on recovering & destroying them (Toyota has taken the high ground with its electric Rav4s).
I am convinced that we are caught up in an IC engine addiction at the moment which will be difficult but possible to break. I will get excited when an auto manufacturer releases an electric vehicle with or without a diesel generator on board. For most people I know range is not an issue at all - 80 km range is fine). Ford/Volvo/LR/Mazda are obvious candidates to release a real hybrid - now often refered to as a 'plug in hybrid', along with Toyota or Honda.
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