North Michigan companies were early adopters in energy efficiency efforts and that points to the bright future of propane vehicles in the region,” says Scott Underwood of Alto LPGas. Pupil transportation and delivery trucks are best suited for Autogas in Michigan.Industries dealing with the private sector like HVAC, school buses, and food delivery are easy to contact and most interested in saving on the bottom line. “It’s easier to deal directly with medium-duty commercial companies instead of working down the line of large scale corporate companies.”
Autogas started to take off in 2004 when propane liquid injection technology was introduced into the US. Today over 28,000 vehicles use propane liquid injection technology in the US. In the state of Michigan there are several thousand vehicles that run on Autogas. The propane marketers are coming together to help promote and educate fleets on using propane Autogas as a fuel source of choice. “By utilizing Autogas, fleets can expect to dramatically reduce emissions and their carbon footprint as well as cost to their fleet,” says Ronny Martinez of MPGA. “If I were answering this question five years ago, I would say it would have been the large fuel cost savings. However today I think that there are many reasons why a fleet should convert and it all starts with significantly lowering cost of operations, which includes low fuel cost and savings in maintenance.” In addition to saving money, fleets would lower their carbon footprint, which can help a fleet differentiate itself from a competitor.
It’s less than gasoline, offers tremendous environmental advantages, reduced maintenance on the engines, they run cleaner,” Gary Shepherd said about dual-fuel systems. Though the systems run on both propane and gas, these dual-fuel systems are nothing new. Stanford LP Gas has been doing alternative fuel work for close to 20 years now. The gas tanks in dual-fuel systems are left intact and a separate propane tank is installed. When drivers want to re-fuel their propane tank, all they have to do is find a propane supplier and fill up. Dual-fuel system owners can choose whether to drive on gasoline or propane. With the press of a button on the dashboard it is possible to switch between the two. “The way the system basically operates is when you start the vehicle cold in the morning, it starts on gasoline. Once the temperature of the engine warms up, it switches over to propane and runs propane the rest of the day. If at any point I want to switch to gasoline, simply push a small switch on the dashboard,” Shepherd said.
Northern Michigan has always been keen on environmentally friendly technology. Autos is cleaner and greener than traditional fuels, reducing your carbon footprint,” says Larry Otto of MPGA. Michigan Habitat for Humanity International recently purchased a van for transporting donations to its ReStore thrift store. The group sought a smaller vehicle for the many smaller donations it receives, including items such as dishware, linens, curtains, and plumbing fixtures. They chose a 2015 Ford Econoline van and had it converted to propane with the assistance of the MPGA.