Dan GibsonAT&T to purchase 8,000 Compressed Natural Gas vehicles

March 12, 2009 by Dan Gibson · 5 Comments, leave one of your own
Filed under: Natural Gas 

In one of the largest U.S. corporate commitments to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles to date, AT&T announced that they would be spending an estimated $350 million to purchase about 8,000 CNG vehicles and approximately $215 million to begin replacing its passenger cars with alternative-fuel models. That purchase is part of a long-term strategy to deploy more than 15,000 alternative-fuel vehicles over the next 10 years

090312att copy AT&T to purchase 8,000 Compressed Natural Gas vehicles

A Green Technology insignia will make the vehicles easy to identify on the road. CNG vehicles offer up to a 39 percent improvement in fuel economy and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 29 percent.

The benefits of CNG vehicles have been well documented and those benefits are especially apparent in fleet vehicles. These CNG vehicles are expected to emit approximately 25 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than those traditionally powered by gasoline.

The Center for Automotive Research (CAR) in Ann Arbor, Mich., estimates that the new vehicles will save 49 million gallons of gasoline and reduce carbon emissions by 211,000 metric tons over the 10-year deployment period. That is equivalent to removing the emissions from more than 38,600 traditional passenger vehicles for a year.

AT&T also expects to replace 7,100 passenger cars over the next 10 years. The alternative-fuel vehicles, are expected to offer up to a 39 percent improvement in fuel economy and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 29 percent.

The full release is available here and you can see a short video from AT&T here. You can also read about the story at the PickensPlan blog.

I wonder who the next big fleet operator to make the switch is going to be. Who do you think it will be?

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5 Comments, leave one of your own
Tags: vehicles

Comments

5 Comments on AT&T to purchase 8,000 Compressed Natural Gas vehicles

  1. Alan Hersch on Fri, 13th Mar 2009 1:03 pm

    2. Beautiful! Also, reduces dependency on foreign oil by using natural gas produced right here in the US of A! Hope ATT&T will set the tone for many more fleets.

  2. Dan Gibson on Sun, 15th Mar 2009 8:43 pm
    Dan Gibson

    3. Thanks Alan. The domestic factor for natural gas is a big issue for me. I don’t think many people realize that aspect of it. I’m looking forward to seeing which fleets make the conversion as well.

  3. Alan Hersch on Sun, 15th Mar 2009 9:47 pm

    4. Are there funds for CNG vehicles and fueling facilities in the final version of the Stimulus Bill?

  4. Dan Gibson on Mon, 16th Mar 2009 8:47 am
    Dan Gibson

    5. Alan,

    I was just talking with Pam Lacey about this. You can check the appropriations chare on the ARRA page at AGA by visiting http://www.aga.org/Legislative/legislative+advocacy/issues/AmericanRecoveryReinvestmentAct.htm
    You can also visit the Natural Gas Vehicles for America web site at http://www.ngvamerica.org/

    Hope that helps.

  5. Rick Trimmer on Wed, 1st Apr 2009 8:10 pm

    6. This sounds great!
    When will the local natural gas companies that supply our natural gas to our homes start using CNG. This is what has been so disappointing to me is that local natural gas company’s don’t support using there own fuel as a motor fuel. Some gas company have put there marketing programs to push gas fired air conditioning!