Penske leading in alternative fuel vehicles for over 25 years
Penske Truck Leasing is North America’s leading provider of full-service leasing and contract maintenance, including preventative maintenance, fleet tracking and driver safety. Penske has been a part of the alternative fuels industry for more than 25 years and has alternative fuel vehicles operating in all weight classes.
Committed to environmental stewardship, Penske was looking to meet customer demand for alternative fuel vehicles. Penske did this by building on its track record of investing heavily in sustainable transportation solutions, products, services, and added natural gas vehicles that use the Hexagon Agility CNG fuel system to its lease fleet.
- Penske is reducing emissions by integrating Hexagon Agility's natural gas fuel system with Type 4 composite fuel tanks and the Cummins Westport near-zero natural gas engine
- These new engines produce 90% less NOx and meet the California Air Resources Board low NOx standard of 0.02 grams per brake horsepower-hour
- Penske operates 350 vehicles running on natural gas, either compressed or renewable
Customer Service & Sustainable Transportation
As a responsible corporate citizen, Penske is committed to managing its environmental impact wherever it does business. Its team of environmental professionals has developed innovative and efficient ways to provide resources to over 900 field locations in order to prevent or reduce environmental impacts, and to achieve 100 percent compliance with local, state and federal environmental regulations. The company has also established green standards for its businesses worldwide, including innovative initiatives that are leading the way toward a cleaner energy future.
Penske works behind the scenes to help tens of thousands of businesses across North America with truck fleets large and small. As diesel prices continue to move higher, a significant number of these businesses are expressing an increased interest in alternative fuels. With many fleet executives looking to natural gas vehicles as the solution, these businesses benefit from Penske's long-standing commitment to environmental stewardship and its tradition of investing heavily in sustainable transportation solutions, products and services.
350
vehicles on natural gas
"With alternative fuels, we are staying ahead of where the heavy-duty and trucking industries are going as a whole."
Flexibility, thanks to Hexagon Agility
When Penske specs vehicles for natural gas, Hexagon Agility's lightweight carbon fiber Type 4 compressed natural gas (CNG) cylinders combined with aircraft-grade aluminum fuel system components offer a safe, durable and compact solution. With fuel capacity options from 30 – 175 diesel gallon equivalent (DGE), Hexagon Agility's CNG fuel systems can fit any application, giving Penske the type of flexibility it needs for its customers. The Agility solution across all weight classes offers the lightest weight truck with the greatest fuel capacity, which gives Penske the best options to offer its customers.
Grant Funding Secured
Through federal, state, and local incentives, Penske has secured over $8 million for natural gas projects. As a result, Penske’s fleet currently contains over 350 CNG vehicles, 100 propane vehicles and a growing number of hybrid and electric vehicles.
As Penske knows well, CNG vehicles require additional infrastructure. Accordingly, since 2012, Penske has offset the costs of facility modification projects with the multiple grant awards its received. Penske plans on adding ten to fifteen more facilities in the next few years to accommodate natural gas vehicle growth. And, as it grows, it looks forward to its continued partnership with Agility, the leading designer and producer of natural gas fuel storage and delivery systems.
Proactive Initiatives and Environmental Leadership Awards
Penske has long had a tradition as a leader in the alternative fuels industry. It continues this admirable tradition by conducting an annual global greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory. It conducted its first GHG inventory in 2008, as a baseline which its now measures against. Penske measures its carbon footprint, from the natural gas and electricity it uses in operations to the fuel and refrigerants it uses to run its fleet. This annual inventory allows Penske to identify its primary sources of GHG emissions and target its reduction efforts.
And its efforts have not gone unrecognized: Penske is a recipient of the 2018 Freight Carrier Excellence Award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) SmartWay program. The SmartWay Transport Partnership is a market-driven initiative empowering businesses to move goods in the cleanest, most energy-efficient way possible, while protecting public health and reducing air pollution. Penske was just one of 40 organizations to receive this distinction, representing the best environmental performers of SmartWay’s 3,700 program participants. Impressively, Penske has earned this SmartWay Excellence Award for five straight years.