Natural gas-fuelled trucks return big fuel savings for two European fleets

By Tim Campbell

15 January 2018

Paris City Hall’s vehicle fleet and Transnugon, a Spanish transportation company, have added gas-powered fully automatic trucks to their fleets, reducing fuel consumption by 17%.

Both fleets have reported improvements in efficiency, driveability and reliability from their new vehicles, which all use an Allison automatic transmission.

In France, the publicly-financed vehicle fleet of Paris City Hall halted the purchase of diesel vehicles in 2014, as a matter of ecological policy. It has added 11 new heavy goods vehicles and utilities vehicles powered by natural gas.

In Spain, Transnugon has acquired seven trucks in Madrid and two more trucks in Valencia which are powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Transnugon’s latest acquisition comprises two Scania trucks and seven Iveco Stralis trucks of 18 and 26 tons, with two and three axles.

Pablo Bordils, Transnugon’s managing director, said: “We can confirm that the Allison gearbox affords very significant fuel savings on low-speed routes with frequent stops, which are typical of urban and interurban transport. If we add this 7% to the 10% reduction in fuel consumption associated with the use of LNG, we are talking about a total reduction of 17% compared to diesel vehicles with an AMT.”

Paris City Hall’s new fleet consist of two Iveco Eurocargo vehicles, two Iveco Stralis tractors and seven Renault models from the D Wide range. They transport a wide range of items for various departments, including logs felled by woodcutters in the parks, paving stones, school equipment, documents and more.

Hervé Foucard, head of the transportation fleet, said: “In association with natural gas engines, the automatic transmissions optimise the performance of the vehicles, and our drivers enjoy the exceptional driving ease of vehicles with Allison automatics. In terms of maintenance expenses, the trucks need less because the engines suffer less in use. That’s essential to deal with our workload. With automatic transmissions we benefit from an operational availability that is not subject to risk.”