You could say it's one of the most unique hybrid vehicles in Colorado. Jefferson County purchased a hybrid snowplow, the first of its kind in the nation.

Jefferson County purchased the 2009 International Model 7300 Hybrid truck for $162,240. “We’re trying to be sensitive to the environment and also save fuel. The diesel is assisted by an electric engine, so half the time it will run off electricity instead of diesel,” said Buck Benke, Director of fleet services for Jefferson County.

Typically this type of truck gets 5 miles per gallon but with the electric engine assist Benke said they hope to get 8 to 10 miles per gallon. Benke also said the engine pollution will be reduced by 65 percent thanks to the hybrid assistance.

Jefferson County has been working on adding a hybrid plow truck to its fleet for two years, one reason for the delay is the unique challenge of outfitting this truck with a plow. “This truck requires a lot of hydraulics that those other sorts of trucks don’t. So that was the challenge for all the engineers, is to make this work where we had all the hydraulics to work the plow and sander and dump box,” Benke said.

The hybrid truck cost about $20,000 more than a non-hybrid model. Jefferson County estimates that the difference will be recouped after 90,000 miles. Jefferson County will use this winter to evaluate the performance of the truck before deciding to add more to its fleet. The County already has 11 other hybrid vehicles.

The hybrid plow will be stationed at the central shop in Golden and will plow roads in the unincorporated areas of Wheat Ridge and Golden, mostly on residential roads.

The way this is a 2 wheel drive truck, so far the manufacturer says it has not come up with a way to make a four-wheel-drive hybrid dump truck.