Volvo: LNG best “climate alternative” for heavy and long haul trucks

Volvo Trucks has declared its intention to ramp up its development of trucks using Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), arguing it is “the best available climate alternative on the market for heavy regional and long-haul transport operations”. In a statement issued yesterday (26 September), Volvo Trucks said: “By replacing diesel with liquefied natural gas or biogas, CO₂ emissions from heavy trucks can be drastically reduced. LNG is today used primarily in industrial operations, but it has excellent prerequisites for being a competitive vehicle fuel with considerable environmental benefits.”

The truck maker said that it was now “intensifying its development of gas-powered trucks for heavy regional and long-haul operations”.

Lars Mårtensson, Director Environment and Innovation at Volvo Trucks, commented: “Many of our customers and their customers already work hard to reduce their environmental footprint. This regulation will drive the development of lower emissions, where we see a clear possibility for increasing LNG market shares as a vital part of the solution. Our vision is that trucks from Volvo will eventually have zero emissions, although the way of achieving that is not by one single solution but rather through several solutions in parallel.”

Many of the leading players in the postal and parcel industry have been promoting their continuing switch over to more environmentally-friendly fuels such as LNG and biogas. And of course we have also seen a more of a take-up for electric-powered vans and scooters.

So there has been a movement towards a greening of the transport section. But there is still a long way to go.

In the US, for example, official statistics from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that: “In 2016, petroleum products provided about 92% of the total energy the U.S. transportation sector used. Biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, contributed about 5% of the total energy the transportation sector used, and natural gas contributed about 3%. Electricity provided less than 1% of the total energy used.”