Gasoline prices are hitting $3.80 per gallon across the country, discouraging Americans from traveling and even impacting the price of other consumer goods. And with some businesses struggling to stay afloat because of increasing transportation and operating costs, more American fleets than ever are considering affordable, domestic alternative fuels.
Compressed natural gas (CNG) is currently making headlines as the answer to high gasoline prices, but propane autogas is another American-made clean fuel that also costs less than gasoline while being more affordable to implement than CNG.
Propane autogas saves fleets more than $1 per gallon at the pump compared to gasoline, and autogas fleets report decreased maintenance needs and increased engine life. In fact, autogas vehicle safety and performance is so trusted, it’s been adopted and successfully utilized by law enforcement agencies across the country. And because autogas produces significantly fewer harmful pollutants than gasoline, these fleets are ensuring clean air for their communities.
While it’s true that CNG also costs less than gasoline and burns cleaner like autogas, the high up-front cost of CNG vehicle conversions and fueling infrastructure makes it a prohibitively expensive alternative fuel for many fleets. For example, converting a light-duty vehicle to run on CNG can range anywhere between $12,000—$18,000, while a gasoline-to-autogas conversion costs approximately $5,800. In other words, two light-duty propane autogas vehicles can be converted for the price of one natural gas-powered vehicle.
And what about fueling stations? All these alternative fuel fleets need somewhere to fill up, after all.
A small, fast-fill CNG station costs about $400,000, while installing a medium or large CNG station will run between $600,000 and $1.7 million. On the other hand, 10 autogas filling stations can be built for the price of one CNG station. And as part of their complete program for fleets, Alliance AutoGas will even install an on-site autogas station at no up-front cost, so autogas fleets can start saving immediately on fuel and maintenance costs.
Though there is no one “magic bullet” solution to our nation’s transportation energy problems, the affordability of getting up and running on propane autogas makes it a viable clean fuel option for many American fleets. Want to know how much you can save by switching your fleet to run on autogas? Visit our online calculator and find out. For ongoing news updates and commentary on alternative fuels and the transportation industry, follow us on Twitter: @AllianceAutoGas.
