Ross Haith of Leggett & Platt with Gianluca Maso of Landi Renzo USA and Landi sales manager Ryan Waltz and Ford E-350 van at the 2013 Work Truck Show

Landi Renzo USA announced today a product distribution partnership with National Energy Equipment.

The agreement allows Canada’s National Energy Equipment to offer Landi Renzo’s latest bi-fuel systems available on Ford F-250, F-350, F-450 and F-550 Super Duty trucks.

The complete product line of CNG systems covered under the distribution agreement includes:

• Ford E-150, E-250 & E-350 – 5.4L V8 engine
• Ford F-250 & F-350 – 6.2L V8 engine
• Ford F-450, F-550 and F-650 – 6.8L V10 engine
• Isuzu NPR HD – 6.0L V8 engine
• GM 2500HD and 3500HD Cab Chassis – 6.0L V8 engine
• GMC Savana & Chevrolet Express Cutaway – 6.0L V8 engine

See our coverage of Landi Renzo USA from the 2013 Work Truck Show, where we spotted their systems on trucks in no-fewer than five separate trade show booths. Landi Renzo’s Everywhere Here – March 7, 2013 ShowTimes

Landi Renzo USA March 15, 2013 press release

Attendee numbers were on-par with last-year’s Green Truck Summit and ShowTimes was there covering the event live — publishing two print magazine issues, along with live news posts to this site.

Check out all the green truck news in the flipbook versions of our live publication here.

A big thank you to the folks at NTEA and Calstart for all the help this year and for putting on such a successful event!

The order wasn’t a clear-cut win. It took Dish more than a year to investigate all the alternative fuel options before settling on Roush and propane, said Abe Stephenson, fleet and administration manager at Dish Network. “It was very important to us not to make sacrifices in day-to-day operations with any alternate fuel strategy,” he said.

Dish Network orders 200 Ford F-250 vans converted to dedicated propane operation by Roush CleanTech.

“It was important that we could source fuel anywhere in the U.S., and propane has 2,500-plus points of distribution around the country; it was important to buy American; and it was important to save money.”

Dish next compared the mileage range of the propane F-250 with the range requirements of its 30 offices, and found that 10 locations were a good fit. The firm had room in their parking lots to install propane tanks so the vans could fill up on site. The first F-250s will begin operations from this summer onwards at two locations each in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit and Atlanta.

Looking ahead, Stephenson said Ford’s introduction of a new Transit next year could make 10 more Dish offices eligible for propane-powered vehicles. Roush CleanTech is at Booth 5099.

Roush also announced availability of propane-powered Ford F-550 and Ford F-59 chassis step van upfits in partnership with Indiana’s Green Alternative Systems (Booth 4593).

The first vehicles will be available in April. The F-59 will cost $17,900, and the F-550 is priced at $21,900.  More than 10 orders had already been placed before the unveiling.

“This is a huge opportunity for this market,” said Todd Mouw, Roush VP of sales and marketing. “An operator can save $40,000 on fuel over the life of the vehicle.”

The F-59 will start with the 2013 model year, and will require Ford gaseous prep of its 6.8-liter V-10 gasoline engine.

Lincoln Composites has a new look.

Get used to Hexagon Lincoln, as parent Hexagon Composites in Norway has decided on a re-brand across the corporation. Lincoln – we mean Hexagon Lincoln, which manufactures all-composite Type IV compressed natural gas fuel cylinders in Lincoln, Neb. – is at Booth 5581.

Ford has published an excellent Alternative Fuel Buyers Guide for 2013 listing QVMs for CNG and propane, with customer success stories and extensive information on electric vehicle charging as well.

Now Ford Motor Co is helping them cut to the quick with a new Alternative Fuels Buyers Guide that covers Ford’s product range and vehicle usage patterns.

“It helps them determine what makes the most business sense,” says Rob Stevens, Ford’s chief engineer for commercial trucks. The new Guide – 20 pages this year – covers Ford’s gaseous-prep engines for propane and natural gas vehicles, with fleet case studies and the automaker’s growing line of electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, with information about charger suppliers.

BAE Systems HybriDrive brand parallel hybrid electric powertrain for trucks is being tested on a Freightliner M2 by Bates Troy Healthcare Linens of Binghamton, N.Y.

BAE Systems plans to add another three HybriDrive propulsion system demonstrators by the end of the year, bringing the number of vehicles under test to nine. Most interest has been shown in the parallel hybrid system for refuse collection vehicles. The electric-hybrid system uses batteries by Ener1.

In January BAE signed a 20-year agreement with Caterpillar to integrate the Cat CX family of transmissions into its HybriDrive system, and to establish an aftermarket field services model leveraging Caterpillar’s vast global service network to support the growing installed base. BAE Systems is at Booth 5571.

Ross Haith of Leggett & Platt with Gianluca Maso of Landi Renzo USA and Landi sales manager Ryan Waltz and Ford E-350 van

Landi Renzo USA is the U.S. arm of Italy’s Landi Renzo, the world leader in gaseous fuel systems for light duty vehicles. A dedicated-compressed natural gas fuel system by Landi Renzo may be seen on an Isuzu NPR HD chassis at Booth 4747 – newly available for ship-through by Utilimaster in Charlotte, Mich. The vehicle has twin 21 gasoline gallon equivalent CNG fuel tanks for a 42-GGE total.

Landi systems may also be seen on a Ford E-350 van at Leggett & Platt’s Booth 1421, on a strip chassis with GM engine by Green Alternative Systems (4593) on the Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp display (4559), and on a Ford F-550 converted by World CNG at Caseco Manufacturing (2215).

There is a Ford F-250 pickup with a Landi Renzo CNG-gasoline bi-fuel up- fit in the Green Truck Ride-and-Drive.

Ram and Chrysler de Mexico president Fred Diaz introduced the factory CNG pickup at the NTEA Work Truck Show in Indianapolis this past March.

The Ram 2500 CNG has now been ordered by 19 states since it was launched at the Work Truck Show just one year ago. Demand has been “fantastic, especially from fleet and commercial customers,” says Ram president & CEO Fred Diaz.

The truck was made available for retail sale two months ago.

Production of the CNG Ram began in Mexico this last October. Chrysler notes that it is the only CNG pickup truck in North America built on an OEM’s own production line instead of being converted by aftermarket upfitters.

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin has been a tireless proponent of CNG, and was instrumental in the sales of CNG Rams to other states.

“Converting the state’s fleet to CNG will save taxpayers millions of dollars in fuel costs,” Gov. Fallin said. “The use of cleaner-burning CNG fuel is good for the environment and promotes Oklahoma-made natural gas which in turn supports the creation of more Oklahoma jobs. Our multi-state bidding process was aimed at encouraging automakers to provide states with more affordable and more functional CNG vehicles.”

Essentially an add-on hybridization of its current fully-automatic 3000 series transmission, the new product is targeted at medium- and heavy-duty trucks in distribution, refuse, utility and shuttle applications.

Allision Transmission H 3000

Production will begin later this year, and talks are under way with OEMs and potential customers, said Laurie Tuttle, Allison hybrid programs VP. Fuel savings are expected to be 25%, she said.

The fully-automatic parallel hybrid propulsion system is of the regenerative braking kinetic energy recovery type: it captures electricity as the vehicle brakes, stores it in batteries, and then uses it to assist propulsion or power other functions.

The main components are a motor-generator by Remy International (its high power-to-weight ratio HVH 4210 model), lithium ion prismatic cell batteries by Delphi Automotive Systems, and power controllers, inverters and DC-to-DC converters.

The battery packs are modular, allowing an operator to choose up to four packs per vehicle to match storage capacity with specific vehicle or duty cycle. “An operator doesn’t have to buy too much capacity,” Tuttle said.

All the hybridization is outside the Allison 3000 transmission, keeping down costs and complexity, she said. In the same vein, the electronic controllers and battery packs are scalable, with the former being designed for a family of hybrid transmissions with minimum development costs.

The controllers include automatic load-based shift sensing (the vehicle changes gear without dropping engine revs), and vehicle acceleration control will be offered as an option. Prognostics are also built in, helping to avoid unnecessary maintenance.

For the technically minded, the motor-generator can provide peak torque of 571 lb-ft from 0-1,300 rpm, or peak power of 134 horsepower, limited by the inverter. It is cooled by Allison’s TranSynd cooling system, which lowers operating temperatures.

Nestled into the motor-generator is the engine-disconnect clutch. The packaging allows a power module just 11 inches long.

The batteries have an energy capacity of 1.6 kilowatt-hours per 50-kilowatt pack, and a typical 100-kilowatt system will use two 50-kilowatt packs.

The new hybrid transmission can be seen on Booth 4777, and the development vehicle (a Coca-Cola truck) on Booth 5098. Motor supplier Remy is at 5453.

Odyne president Joe Dalum explains his company’s heavy duty plug-in hybrid electric drive.

National Truck Equipment Association government activities director Mike Kastner was among the tour guides.
The party stopped by Altec’s Booth 5661, where product manager Mark Greer explained green initiatives including Altec’s JEMS (for jobsite energy management system) aerial lift, which operates on battery power. The lifts reduce engine idling, which saves fuel and reduces emissions while making for a quieter, more congenial and safer work site.

Alabama-based Altec last year opened a 42,000-square-foot assembly facility in Dixon, Calif. at the behest of the Pacific Gas & Electric utility, a key customer. PG&E said just last month that it will add 127 bucket trucks with battery-powered Altec aerial lifts during 2013, augmenting 320 in service. “By 2017, the utility plans to have over 700 e-WIMS trucks in its fleet,” said PG&E transportation services director Dave Meisel.

The Altec JEMS reduces idling and provides engine-off power for tools, but doesn’t affect how a truck drives. “We focus on both,” said Odyne president Joe Dalum, who described his company’s plug-in hybrid electric drivelines for trucks.
Odyne (Booth 5566) uses equipment from Allison (which Dalum said invested in Odyne this past June) and lithium batteries from Johnson Controls.

DoE’s Pat Davis, Altec CEO Lee Styslinger, and NREL’s Ron Schoon with Daimler Trucks North America president Richard Saward (right)

A 28-kilowatt-hour battery pack can put out 10 kilowatts or even 14 kilowatts of export electricity, Dalum said, enough to power compressors for jackhammers. The power takeoff feature is powerful enough that truck outfitters can eliminate a conventional generator entirely. “You can remove an engine and all the maintenance associated with it by using this battery system,” Dalum said.

Odyne systems are available for both new vehicles and retrofit.

On to the big Freightliner-Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp display (4559/4659), where Daimler Trucks North America president Richard Saward told the DoE officials, “No matter what the application, we think natural gas has a fit.” Among the vehicles shown for the first time here was a dedicated-CNG Freightliner M2 112 outfitted with a Johnston sweeper body. Timco and Elgin use the chassis for sweepers too.

The DoE party got a preview of Ford’s announcement of new Transit cab and cutaway vehicles, all to have alternative fuel capability. “We’ve got eight different vehicle platforms that we can modify,” said Ford alternative fuels strategist Jon Coleman. “It doesn’t matter what alternative fuel the customer is interested in,” he said. “We have a van for him.”

GM alternate energy sales director Mark Karney explained about GM’s dedicated-CNG vans and CNG-gasoline bi-fuel pickups, for which a new body style will be available in the coming weeks. Knapheide VP Chris Weiss explained how his firm saves weight by using advanced materials and better overall designs – with alternative fuels as an upfit option too.

Last but not least, NTEA executive director Steve Carey summed up the state of alternative fuel vehicles in March 2013: Fleet managers are asking real ROI questions about AFVs, he said, and “They’re becoming very deployable.”