Allison Transmission Holdings Inc. has announced a new series of fuel-efficient bus transmission models. Referred to as xFE, designating ‘extra fuel economy,’ the fully automatic bus transmissions have demonstrated improvements up to 7% in addition to the company's FuelSense features. Notably, the xFE models are also compatible with alternative fuel engines.
‘Other than our hybrid products, these new xFE models represent the very best fuel economy technology we offer,’ says Lawrence Love, executive director of global marketing for Allison Transmission. ‘Our goal with the new xFE portfolio is to achieve the best fuel economy from an automatic transmission in a bus.’
Models with xFE are new transmissions with the same space claim and ratings as current models, but they incorporate optimized gear ratios coupled with the FuelSense Max package. The company says they have been designed to enable first range lock up, deliver significantly more lock up operation and operate at lower engine speeds in higher ranges to further improve fuel economy.
Although individual fleet results will depend heavily on the duty cycle, Allison says testing at customer fleets on four continents and in cities ranging from St. Louis to Seoul and Beijing to Rio de Janeiro, the xFE units have delivered fuel economy improvements of up to 7% when compared to baseline models. These improvements resulted from the new gear ratios and were independent of FuelSense features, the company adds.
The new bus model for North America is designated as the B3400 xFE. Production began last month in Indianapolis. Outside of North America, Allison will offer three new xFE models: the T3280 xFE, T3325 xFE and T3375 xFE.
