Kenworth hooks Toronto food bank with hybrid

BURLINGTON, Ont. — Kenworth Truck delivered a new T270 diesel-electric hybrid truck to Food for Life Canada during a special ceremony yesterday in Burlington, Ont.

The new hybrid, which is one of Kenworth’s first Class 6 hybrid trucks to go into operation in Canada, was produced at the PACCAR plant in Ste. Therese, Que.

Food for Life Canada purchased the truck from Kenworth Truck Centres of Ontario with funds donated by The Sprott Foundation, which was founded in 1988 and provides humanitarian aid for urgent human need, homelessness and hunger.

The Kenworth hybrid will support Food for Life’s new ReFresh Foods project, which is a regional food acquisition and redistribution hub that will provide larger quantities of fresher, healthier food-to-food banks and front line social service agencies in Ontario’s Halton region near Toronto. ReFresh Foods will focus on collecting food directly from food distributors and packagers.

"Kenworth Truck Centres of Ontario is honored that Food for Life and its new ReFresh Foods project chose the new Kenworth T270 hybrid truck to help serve those in need and we hope that it has many long years of service to the community," said Vince Tarola, dealer principal of Kenworth Truck Centres in Concord, Ont.

The Kenworth T270 hybrid features a PACCAR PX-6 engine, integral transmission-mounted motor/generator, frame-mounted 340-volt battery pack, and dedicated power management system.

Advanced powertrain controls monitor driving conditions and automatically select the ideal power mode, smoothly switching among electric only, combined diesel and electric, and diesel only power modes. Electricity generated through regenerative braking is stored and used for acceleration, assisting the diesel engine. The hybrid system is monitored through a dash display. As the power requirements for different driving conditions change, the screen constantly updates the driver on system status.