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G. David Felt Alternative Fuels & Propulsion writer www.CheersandGears.com Wednesday 4th of June, NAFA (National Association of Fleet Administrators) had a Green Lunch Buffet to cover the upcoming changes to the pacific northwest. They covered the newest public CNG stations opening this year including a major station that will serve the public and truckers in Oregon on I5 as well as 3 new stations for Seattle. These stations will offer both LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) and CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) to the public. Washington State who has the largest ferry fleet in the nation is building 4 new ferries which will run on LNG with the goal over the next 5 years to convert the whole fleet to LNG. We were told that in Diesel form, these 4 ferry's would consume 600,000 gallons of diesel in a 24hr period. On LNG they are expecting to only consume 510,000 gallons of LNG every 24hrs. The state also said they expect to see a reduction in cost due to how clean the engines run, longer run times between maintenance and less cost to clean up environmental spills from diesel / oil. Peterbilt / Kenworth / Paccar presented showing the growing fleet of pure CNG powered trucks from medium duty to heavy duty with 7L, 9L, 10L and an upcoming 12L LNG/CNG engine options. Fleets were shown the growing list of OEM CNG auto's from Detroit big 3 and how checking the box for the $200 option for a Hardened Engine was a wise move for down the road when they must convert all auto's to CNG, BioFuel or move to Electric. Washington state has pushed back their mandate from 2015 to 2018 to give a bit more time for the Cities, Counties and state to move all public autos to CNG, Biodiesel or electric. Clean Energy announced the purchase of multiple rights to harvest the methane from landfills, animal waste, etc. around the US, scrub it clean and put it into the natural gas supply so that stations can be Redeem certified as a renewable gas source. WorldCNG presented their updated list of 2014 CNG converted auto's. They informed the audience of the new choice for businesses to public entities of having an AWD Terrain or Equinox CUV on CNG. They also brought for people to look at and check out their first converted 2014 3500 CNG Ram Promaster. There was much interest and excitement by the services and city delivery companies as well as local government agencies. While exciting to see this van in person, my personal impression is that this will sell well but not be a long lasting van. To start with, the dash is hard plastic and feels very flimsy. I honestly did not feel it was solid. Fit and finish has a long ways to go as I found many flaws and much unfinished edges in the finished area of the cab as well as at the doors. Inside of the van was aimed for refitters with many places to bolt in various shelf, draws, bins, etc. for custom configuration. Style is truly a personal choice as while I do not think it is a very good looking van, the fleet people that attended seemed to be split down the center 50/50 on love it or hate it for the style. They all loved the CNG option. Interesting note is that to reduce drag on the underside of the van the ProMasters have a very smooth finished if one can call it that to reduce drag. The flip side of this coin is that you reduce drag and get better mpg but you have no place to mount or add on options. This causes the CNG tanks to be stored in a vertical rack behind the cab in a 3 or 4 tank configuration. Have questions? Ask away!
