Clean Energy Fuels Corp. has announced that its customers ordered 70 percent more natural gas vehicles through the third quarter of 2013 as compared to the same period in 2012.
In addition, the company, which is the largest provider of natural gas fuel for transportation in North America, announced select deals in the transit sector building on its continually-growing portfolio of natural gas fuelcustomers.
The Long Beach Public Transportation Company has signed a new multi-year operation and maintenance agreement to fuel with Clean Energy. LBT has deployed 64 compressed natural gas (CNG) buses and has the capacity to serve up to 110 buses at its CNG station.
Las Vegas transportation company Whittlesea-Bell Transportation has rolled out 229 new CNG vehicles and continues transition of entire fleet to natural gas by 2016. Clean Energy’s six public-access fueling stations in Las Vegas will support this growing CNG fleet.
In making the announcement, Clean Energy’s president and CEO, Andrew J. Littlefair said that in looking back at 2013, “the pronounced trend toward natural gas as a transportation fuel is clear with our customers ordering 70 percent more natural gas vehicles through Q3 2013 than during the same period last year.”
This year, industry experts forecast that approximately 2,400 Cummins Westport 12L natural gas engines are scheduled to come off production lines and into America’s heavy duty trucks, a figure which is projected to rise to 10,000 in 2014, he said. In addition, 10 more of the company’s America’s Natural Gas Highway stations began fueling this year for a total of 19 now in service to support America’s truckers and it will continue to meet this growing demand in 2014 as the transition accelerates.
“2013 also saw promising developments in the rail and maritime industry’s use of natural gas,” noted Littlefair. “These new segments show tremendous promise in the coming years and we will continue to support them as they develop.”
