First Full-Sized, Full-Powered Natural Gas Trucks To Be Manufactured Are Now In Georgia

Torque News is reporting:

The first full-sized, full-powered, 12-liter heavy-duty trucking engines powered by pure natural gas to be commercially produced are now in service in Georgia. 

And you can expect to see many more of them in the near future.Modern Transportation, a Pennsylvania-based fleet operations company, has purchased and put into service two natural gas-powered Freightliner Cascadia trucks in Georgia. 

The trucks will carry supplies from Sanford, North Carolina to Owens Corning's roofing plant in Savannah, Georgia. This marks a new era in commercial transportation. While natural gas engines are nothing new in lighter-duty commercial vehicles, such as buses, some construction vehicles, and trucks of 16,000 gross vehicle weight (GVW) and lower, they are relatively new to the heavy-hauling, full-sized semi-truck sector. 

Cummins-Westport, one of the world's largest heavy-duty engine makers, has built natural gas engines for some time. Last year, they began offering a spark-ignited 11.9-liter dedicated natural gas engine, the ISX12 G, to truck makers. 

The engine has been adopted by several major truck manufacturers, including Freightliner, Paccar (Kenworth and Peterbilt brands), Mack and others. Among the first full-sized, commercial semi-trucks to roll off the line with the engines in them were Freightliner Cascadias, two of which were purchased by Modern Transportation.

The tide is turning. We may have hit a tipping point in natural gas transportation.