2017 Records Continued Propane Autogas Growth
Another year is coming to an end, and we have a lot to celebrate. This year, we put more than 3,000 new propane autogas vehicles on the road. That makes a total of 17,500 vehicles since 2012 that have displaced over 500 million gallons of diesel and reduced greenhouse gases and other emissions by the tens of millions of tons. We also launched the lowest NOx propane engine for Class 4-7 trucks this past year.
More students across the nation are safely riding to school in propane school buses — in Newport News in Virginia, Southwest Allen County Schools in Indiana, Fulton County in Georgia and Sierra Foothill Charter in California, to name a few. This year marked the 10,000th propane school bus equipped with our fuel system. More than 800,000 children in 750 school districts in 48 states now count on Blue Bird Propane Vision school buses to get them to and from school on a daily basis.
The transit industry continued to grow this year, too. About 1,500 vehicles fueled by propane autogas are transporting people around their communities in clean public transportation. Earlier this year, we developed a fuel system for the Ford E-350 cutaway to provide transit agencies with a new vehicle option for servicing routes with fewer customers.
Many customers in both these industries are coming back for more. In 2011, Riverhead School District purchased its first propane school buses. This year, the district added more and now operates 35 Blue Bird Propane Vision buses. Delaware Transit Corporation also added to its current propane fleet, now running 165 transit vehicles.
We have an abundant supply of propane going into the winter season. According to the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. currently has a stock of 75 million barrels. Last week, our nation produced 1.9 million barrels per day and exported half of that. Why export it when we can use this safe, economical and domestically produced alternative to fuel our fleets?
Propane autogas reduces emissions, lowers fuel and maintenance costs and improves our country’s energy security. Call us at 800.59.ROUSH to learn how your fleet can benefit.
Thank you for being a part of this record year! Happy Holidays and we wish you a healthy and prosperous 2018.
Sincerely,
Todd Mouw
