Brown Goes Green, Makes Green With LNG Trucks

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

America sits on one of the world’s largest deposits of natural gas, more than enough to make the U.S. independent from the foreign oil imports the electric vehicles failed to avert. While the price of oil goes up, natural gas is now cheaper than 30 years ago. Greenhouse gas emissions from engines powered by natural gas trucks are about 20 percent lower than those powered by gasoline or diesel. One would not notice this at normal “gas” station. Cars and trucks still mostly fuel up the old-fashioned way. A change to natural gas is now brought by UPS.

UPS will buy about 700 LNG vehicles, supplied by four refueling stations by the end of 2014, Reuters says. UPS said that with natural gas prices 30-40 percent lower than imported diesel, the investment will see a quick payback. UPS already has more than 1,000 natural gas vehicles on the road across the world and will have one of the biggest LNG truck fleets in the world one the project is completed.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Wstarvingteacher Wstarvingteacher on Apr 23, 2013

    Had the plans to convert an old vw to propane (I think). Kits are cheap but nobody apparently seems to make a diy kit for anything with FI. Had a local mechanic who converted an old cavalier. Among the benefits are that the engines apparently last longer. Seems to me that the biggest drawback to running NG or Propane is the cost of conversion. I know the taxman also reared his ugly head and was assessing extra taxes if you used the propane in a car. I do not mean to introduce confusion by switching back and forth between propane and NG but the benefits and drawbacks seem similar. Any clues on why NG has the focus when propane is so available.

  • Mypoint02 Mypoint02 on Apr 23, 2013

    Natural gas does seem like a very viable option for the US. Unfortunately, the anti-any fossil fuel mentality in Washington is holding it back. I currently drive 125 miles round trip 4 days a week and drive past a station that sells CNG. The price has been $1.79 / gallon equivalent since they installed the systems about 6 months ago. Doing the math on that, I could easily pay for a CNG Civic (for example) just on the savings over gas - and probably would if I was going to be doing this drive long term. Electric cars are a novel concept, but the range concerns and recharging times are a deal breaker for all but a narrow segment of the market. People take long trips occasionally and an e-car isn't an option in that situation. Would the infrastructure to support natural gas vehicles not be much easier to build out than it would be for electric cars?

    • See 1 previous
    • Lorenzo Lorenzo on Apr 23, 2013

      At that price, they can't be collecting any of the fuel taxes levied on gasoline and diesel. I'd be wary of governments adding the taxes later.

  • Dimwit Dimwit on Apr 23, 2013

    Up here Purolator has brought into their fleet LPG/Electric hybrids on Grumman chassis. The drivers *hate* them. Absolutely no pickup. The local UPS boys already have the CNG trucks deployed but I haven't talked to them on how the trucks perform.

    • See 1 previous
    • Dimwit Dimwit on Apr 23, 2013

      @Scoutdude Ok. All I know is that it said Grumman above the grill.

  • D002 D002 on Apr 23, 2013

    @"UPS said that with natural gas prices 30-40 percent lower than imported diesel, the investment will see a quick payback." Except that CNG uses about 40% more fuel than diesel, and then there's the conversion costs. CNG isn't used in Europe, South America or Australia, where diesel is much more expensive than USA, so its unlikely to take off there either. CNG vehicles are used in Pakistan, where diesel imports are subject to "political" constraints, but mostly in small ignition engine vehicles like four cylinder pick ups and mini-buses, not large trucks. CNG might be viable in taxi fleets, if the LPG price continues to rise.

    • Scoutdude Scoutdude on Apr 23, 2013

      No they are referring to the overall cost of the fuel considering fuel economy. For commercial vehicles that use a lot of fuel the projected savings can be $100K or more over the life expectancy of the vehicle, assuming of course that the price differential holds out, which it won't over the long run. If it does replace diesel on a large scale then there will be a glut that will lead to lower diesel prices and if demand goes up significantly for NG it's price will rise.

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