Freightliner Unveils Tractors Powered by Natural Gas
This story appears in the July 13 print edition of Transport Topics.
Freightliner Trucks introduced its first natural gas-powered tractor this month, and it will offer natural gas-powered vehicles in 90% of its truck applications by 2010.
The truck, a Freightliner Business Class M2 112 NG, uses a Cummins Westport ISL G engine, an 8.9-liter cooled-exhaust gas recirculation power plant. It is aimed at shorthaul and medium-haul markets such as port drayage.
Customers can choose this engine to run either on compressed natural gas or liquefied natural gas.
“Available in ratings up to 320 horsepower, the ISL G already meets . . . 2010 standards,” Freightliner, a division of Daimler Trucks North America, said July 7. “No further technology or aftertreatment will be required to meet 2010 emissions.”
“This has been the same basic engine for the past three years, and it doesn’t need selective catalytic reduction or any other new treatment to meet Environmental Protection Agency standards for 2010 because it runs so cleanly,” Robert Carrick, DTNA western region vocational manager, told Transport Topics.
He said natural gas models by Sterling Trucks, the division that DTNA terminated in March, used the same engine.
“I was the one who put the team together for Sterling natural gas trucks,” Carrick said. “So, at the sun-setting of the Sterling brand, I stepped into the role of taking what we learned with the Sterling product and rolling it into a Freightliner.”
The first five vehicles powered by natural gas rolled off the assembly line early in July and were delivered to Freightliner dealers in Los Angeles, Carrick said.
“We’ve had great interest not only from companies serving the ports of California but also from short- and medium-haul companies elsewhere,” Carrick said. “They could even be used for longhaul, if a national network of natural gas stations existed, but for now, they’re perfect for trucks that travel about 300 miles a day.
“Natural gas vehicles are cheaper to run,” Carrick added. “Diesel is running about $2.85 a gallon in Southern California, where the equivalent amount of liquefied natural gas sold for about $2.15 a gallon and compressed natural gas for $1.65 a gallon.
“The mileage that natural gas gets is very close to diesel, with owner-operators we talk to in the ports saying it’s very comparable,” Carrick said.
One major difference is that the average Class 8 truck can carry 200 gallons of diesel, while space restrictions mean the Freightliner carries only the natural gas equivalent of 65 gallons, Carrick said.
“That’s adequate for a regional truck, though a 90-gallon capacity would be perfect,” he added.
Meanwhile, legislation being introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would double the tax incentives for buying vehicles fueled by natural gas and extend them for a decade, Bloomberg News reported July 8.
The credits, which can be used to cover 80% of the added cost of buying natural gas-fueled vehicles instead of conventional ones, would jump to as high as $64,000 for higher weight-class vehicles, according to a summary of the legislation.
On June 10, Mack Trucks Inc. said it would offer its first natural gas-powered engines for refuse applications, using the same Cummins Westport engine that Daimler’s M2 uses. It can run on either CNG or LNG.
Last year, Kenworth Truck Co. and Peterbilt Motors Co., both subsidiaries of Paccar Inc., introduced heavy-duty natural gas vehicles powered by a different, larger engine.
Both used Westport LNG models, which Westport Innovations of Vancouver, British Columbia, converts from a Cummins 15-liter ISX engine by using its patented technology and sells under its own name.
The Westport LNG engine produces 400 hp to 450 hp. It runs only on LNG, with 95% LNG and 5% diesel as a pilot ignition source. The Westport LNG engine will need SCR aftertreatment in 2010.
Neither Volvo Trucks North America nor Navistar Inc.’s International trucks have natural gas engines, although VTNA demonstrated a prototype in 2008.
