UPS Inc. announced it will spend $450 million to add 6,000 vehicles powered by compressed natural gas as well as supporting infrastructure beginning next year. It is the largest multiyear commitment UPS has made to date for alternative fuel vehicles.
The additions include heavy-duty trucks, medium-duty package vans, and terminal tractors.
UPS expects to have finished adding the equipment by 2022.
“We have been deploying natural gas vehicles for many years. We greatly accelerated our deployment of natural gas stations and vehicles starting in 2013. We no longer consider our natural gas fleet to be in a test or experimental phase, but rather it is mainstream for UPS now,” a UPS spokesperson told Transport Topics. “We closely follow oil and natural gas prices, but we believed back in 2013 that natural gas in the U.S. would be relatively stable in cost versus oil-based fuels. That has proven to be the case and we see that continuing for the foreseeable future.”
Agility Fuel Solutions, a business of Hexagon Composites, will supply the fuel systems. Since 2016, Agility has provided natural gas fuel storage and delivery systems to more than 1,700 UPS trucks.
Additionally, TruStar Energy will design, manufacture and install five CNG fueling stations in Lathrop, Visalia and Moreno Valley, Calif., Houston and Cleveland.
