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WORK TRUCK SHOW & GREEN TRUCK SUMMIT
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012
Green Truck–Work Truck 2012 More News Content Published Online www.showtimesdaily.com
Via Leads with Verizon ‘This is a historic moment for America,’ said Via Motors CEO Kraig Higginson, who claimed commitments here yesterday for 20,000 of his new GM-based, extendedrange electric vans with fleets including Verizon, with deliveries of 2,700 this year. —Page 5
The 2012 Ride-and-Drive Vehicles ranging from battery electrics to diesels to deliver your pizza or trim your tree are here to take for a spin. —Pages 8-9
CNG Fords via Upfitters Firms including BAF, Landi Renzo USA, Venchurs, and Westport Innovations can modify your Ford for CNG. —Pages 10-11
FCCC for Factory Propane Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp roars back into propane-autogas with a factorybuilt S2G with 8.0-liter GM engine. One target market: propane dealers. —Page 12
Chrysler literally took the wraps off its long-awaited re-entry into natural gas vehicles in the U.S. here yesterday, showing a CNG-gasoline bi-fuel Ram pickup truck that’s 100% factory built. Full OEM assembly line manufacturing will reduce costs by some $6,000 compared with the competition, said Ram president Fred Diaz. ‘This is not a conversion,’ he said.
Chrysler Claims a First with CNG Ram Truck America’s only factory-built compressed natural gas bi-fuel pickup truck was unveiled here yesterday by Chrysler’s Ram Trucks. CNG vehicles from Ford and GM are delivered from the factory to converters – albeit with full OEM sanction and warranties – but the Ram CNG will be built on the production line by the manufacturer, said Fred Diaz, president and CEO of Ram Truck Brand and Chrysler de Mexico. “This is not a conversion,” he stressed. This brings two benefits – a three-year/30,000 mile Chrysler warranty for the whole vehicle and fuel systems, and a savings on price of at least $6,000 that competitors incur for CNG conversions. The Ram 2500 HD CNG, available from July as a Crew Cab 4x4 model with 169-inch wheelbase, is priced at $47,500, including a $995 destination charge. A comparable conventional Ram is priced around $39,745. With a $3 difference between CNG and gasoline, a Ram owner will recoup the extra cost of the CNG vehicle in close to two years, Diaz said. The truck uses
gasoline only on start up, and if CNG is not available. The Ram CNG was engineered in collaboration with Chrysler’s major investor Fiat, which has an 80% market share in Europe’s clean vehicle market with more than half a million trucks and cars on the roads. Appealing to American patriotism, Diaz said the Ram CNG runs on domestic gas instead of imported oil “and is factory-built in North America for North America.” Diaz said the Ram CNG should prove popular with commercial and fleet operators, government agencies, and small businesses and contractors. Ram Truck is experiencing a boom in popularity, he noted, with 22 consecutive months of higher sales and a 21% increase in 2011. Chrysler Ram is at Booth 1003 and a new CNG Ram is in the Green Truck ride-and-drive. —See Pages 8-9
More from the Green Truck Summit CNG, propane, truck electrification from CalstartNTEA Green Truck Summit here. —Page 6