Courtesy Ford Motor Co. Ford Motor Co. this fall will roll out an F-150 pickup truck with a factory-installed gaseous prep kit. Courtesy Ford Motor Co. In addition to the $315 engine prep kit, the extra cost to add a CNG/LNG fuel system is $7,500 to $9,500, Ford estimates. Related Links: Test Drive: Life On the Road With Natural Gas Chrysler, Ford, GM Introduce Natural-Gas Pickup Trucks Starting this fall, Ford Motor Co. will offer natural gas power in a half-ton pickup truck. Previously, truck makers have installed factory kits into larger vehicles only.Available as a retrofit for years, the
Made in China, SDLG wheel loaders will go on sale in North America this September. Related Links: Volvo Opens $100-Million Factory Expansion Volvo Finds Smooth Sailing by Going Offshore Rather than compete with Chinese manufacturers in North America, Volvo has decided to join them.Shandong Lingong Construction Machinery Co. Ltd. (SDLG), a China-based unit of Volvo Construction Equipment, has started importing wheel loaders into North America. The company plans to put them on sale the first week of September.Until now, SDLG has been focused on emerging markets, such as Brazil, whose buyers place less of a value on
Photo by Jeff Rubenstone for ENR A weakness in global mining has hurt Cat's equipment sales. Construction equipment makers Caterpillar and Terex reported mixed earnings results in the second quarter, with slow global construction sales expected to continue through the second half of 2013. Caterpillar's most profitable segment was its power-systems business, but that was overshadowed by slow sales in its global mining and construction units. Cat's 2013 sales and revenue outlook is now in the range of $56 billion to $58 billion, a decline from an earlier outlook of $57 billion to $61 billion.Terex reported a 5.1% drop in
Related Links: 2013 Ram Pickup Raises Fuel-Economy Bar European Vans Invade Work Truck Show Chrysler's Ram brand has consistently placed third behind Ford and General Motors among pickup-truck consumers and fleet buyers alike. However, with a new focus on the commercial market and several key updates to its heavy-duty pickups, Ram in the past year has increased its pickup market share to 11% from 9%, its executives say. The incremental gain may not put fear into the hearts of the competition, but the momentum continues into the 2014 model year, which promises best-in-class fuel efficiency, handling and capability—as well as
Courtesy Mack Trucks Mack plans to start building DME-powered trucks in 2015. Related Links: Truck Quality Suffers From Cleaner Diesels Are Clean-Diesel Engine Rules Stifling Innovation? Add U.S. construction-company fleet managers to the list of possible beneficiaries of the growing national gas boom, but the payoff is at least two years away. Dimethyl ether, a diesel replacement product that can be made from a variety of chemical feedstocks, could power a new line of heavy-duty trucks due in 2015 from a Volvo North America and Mack Truck partnership.Natural gas will be the primary raw material used in dimethyl ether (DME)
Related Links: Delaware Utility's Road From Bloom Box to Grid Bloom Energy Delware State Assembly Bill SB 124 Row after row of glossy black boxes hum away on an acre of land between a cornfield and the banks of Delaware's Red Lion Creek. "It's basically a fuel-cell farm," says George Gottuso, senior project manager with Hill International. "Right now, it's delivering 5.8 megawatts to the utility."These refrigerator-sized cabinets are Bloom Energy Servers, natural-gas-powered fuel cells manufactured and owned by Bloom Energy, Sunnyvale, Calif. Each energy server contains a stack of solid-oxide fuel cells, made with Bloom's patented process and design.One
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