Navistar is extending its hybrid leadership with innovative new programs designed to further cut the cost of ownership for its hybrid vehicles at a time of extraordinarily high diesel prices. It announced recently that it is offering customers extra savings and peace of mind when buying the International® DuraStarTM Hybrid medium-duty chassis – a $6,000 tax-match incentive, a 60-month fair market value lease and a 60-month battery-lease program, a first of its kind in the North American commercial vehicle industry that results in an additional $10,000 off the purchase price.

These new programs help give customers a shorter payback period to realize their return on investment. The DuraStar Hybrid offers up to 30-60 percent fuel savings over traditional diesel-powered vehicles. At today’s high diesel prices, that equates to a savings of nearly $4,000 in fuel per vehicle annually. It also results in annual greenhouse gas reductions of 11 to 16.5 tons of carbon dioxide per unit.

Navistar is also introducing two new leasing programs on the DuraStar Hybrid: the 60-month fair market value lease, in which customers will have the option when the lease expires to either purchase the vehicle or just walk away. In addition, Navistar is offering a simple, 60-month battery-lease program for the DuraStar Hybrid—the first of its kind in the North American industry.

Part of Navistar is IC Bus, the nation’s largest school bus and commercial bus manufacturer; she became in 2007 the first and only bus manufacturer to begin production of hybrid school buses in partnership with Enova Systems.