Author: Vitaliy Dadalyan

JetBlue talks pick up with planemakers over replacing jets

MONTREAL/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jet Blue Airways Corp met with Canadian planemaker Bombardier Inc and also had plans to meet with Brazil's Embraer SA this month, according to an internal email reviewed by Reuters, in a signal that talks are picking up for the U.S. airline's closely watched sales campaign. Low-cost carrier JetBlue has previously said it is weighing whether to replace its fleet of about 60, 100-seater E-190 jets, in a campaign pitting Bombardier's CSeries against its Brazilian rival's latest model, the E190-E2. JetBlue officials also met Bombardier Chief Executive Alain Bellemare at the company's Montreal-area plant on Monday, said an industry source, confirming earlier media reports.


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XL Hybrids to Electrify Ford’s F-250 Pickup

Photo of 2018 Ford F-250 courtesy of XL Hybrids.

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XL Hybrids will offer an electrified 2018 Ford F-250 pickup to commercial and municipal fleets that will be unveiled at NTEA's Work Truck Show in Indianapolis in early March, the company announced.

The battery-electric hybrid F-250 will be equipped with the vehicle modifier's XLH hybrid drive system that's expected to increase fuel economy by 25% and significantly reduce carbon-dioxide emissions.

Production of the hybrid F-250 conversions will begin in March. The Work Truck Show is set for March 6 to 9 in Indianapolis.

XL Hybrids will also make its technology available on more F-150 pickups, by adding SuperCrew models. The company now offers F-150s with its XLP plug-in hybrid electric system that improves fuel economy by 50%, according to the company.

"Ford trucks are in high demand by XL's fleet customers, so we developed our hybrid-electric upfit solutions for both the F-150 and F-250 pickup to support needs for power, payload, as well as better fuel economy,” said Clay Siegert, the company's chief operating officer.

XL Hybrids installs its XLH hybrid and XLP plug-in systems in several hours and uses Ford's ship-through process. The vehicle retains its factory warranty, and receives a three-year, 75,000-mile warranty from XL on the hybrid powertrain.

XLH and XLP will also include the XL Link cloud-based big data analytics system, which collects millions of operational data points and miles-per-gallon performance, carbon dioxide emissions reductions, and other key performance indicators.

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