Cintas, headquartered in Ohio, will begin deploying the vans at its California facilities and therefore qualify for the state’s Hybrid Voucher Incentive Program funding with incentives of $25,000 per unit.
The 100 units will be deployed in Sacramento, San Leandro, and Ontario, California. Cintas will continue to evaluate further deployment of green fleet technology to additional Cintas locations in the US and Canada.
Azure’s Balance Hybrid Electric drive system manages the conventional 5.4l triton gasoline engine and the 5-speed automatic TorqShift transmission on the Ford E450 chassis. The Cintas vans utilize a delivery body from Utilimaster in Wakarusa, Indiana.
Dan Braun, senior vice president of value improvement initiatives at Cintas, said: “We’re excited to be implementing this environmentally friendly solution for Cintas, and this order of 100 Azure Dynamics Balance hybrid electric vehicles is a significant first step in establishing our commitment to a greener fleet, and being socially responsible.
“In completing our due diligence, we selected Azure Dynamics hybrid electric system which combines with the Ford gasoline engine that is part of the current Cintas fleet. The engine-off-at-idle is also important feature of the hybrid electric to ensure reduction of vehicle emissions during the daily operation of our vehicles.”
