Two different stories on three different PHEV projects in Long Island,
which has gone plug-in crazy for heavy-duty vehicles. A plug-in bus
from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is ready to roll into
service in the next couple of months, and the town of Oyster Bay was
recently awarded $270,000 to convert three dump trucks to plug-ins.

Not many specifics on the truck conversions as they've just been
funded. They'll be used -- of course -- for curbside recycling.
They'll run in full-electric mode for residential pickups and only
turn on their diesel engines for travel to and from the recycling
facility. These (also postal service vehicles) represent practically
the ideal commercial implementation of PHEVs: in addition to the
standard major benefits of a plug (cleaner/cheaper/domestic) there's
significant impact from the side benefit of "stealth mode."

http://www.northender.com/northend_news_details.jsp?id=291

The bus conversion was sponsored by the Long Island Power Authority in
conjunction with EPRI (partners also in the Daimler-Chrysler Sprinter
project - see http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/340.html). They've
replaced the standard engine with a four-cylinder Volkswagen diesel,
which will serve exclusively to recharge and top-off the batteries.
Batteries (assumed to be lithium) weigh a whopping 5200 pounds but
give the bus a 40-mile all-electric range. It charges from a 240V
outlet, so if you can part with your clothes-dryer and $2M, you can
have one of these babies yourself.

Article also lists a number of other PHEV projects that are in the
works in other LI cities.

http://www.libn.com/article.htm?articleID=35733