Fisher (Body Co.) says it can save gas in mass transit

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http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080729/BUSINESS06/807290339/1019/business

Some of the descendents of the family that founded Fisher Body Co. are returning to their roots with Fisher Coachworks LLC, a company formed earlier this year to become a manufacturer of electric-drive buses.

Gregory Fisher, CEO and founder of Fisher Coachworks, along with other investors and several other Fisher family members, have teamed up with Autokinetics Inc. to build a transit bus that weighs less than traditional transit buses and could play a major role in bringing greater fuel efficiency to the mass transportation industry.

"It's roughly half the weight of existing mass-transit buses on the market today, and with half the weight, and you get roughly twice the mileage," Fisher said. "Our vehicle uses a patented floor and roof skin that is made out of corrugated stainless steel."

Autokinetics, an engineering design firm in Rochester Hills, has spent the last seven years designing the bus and Fisher Coachworks of Troy is gearing up to be the manufacturer. The Fisher Coachworks 40-foot Transit Bus is to be powered by an electric engine with batteries that would be recharged by a diesel generator. The company plans to begin demonstrating the vehicle in about two weeks and hopes to begin production by late 2009.

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