|
|
07/01/2009
Michelle Collins
Alabama Clean Vehicles Workshop
July, 2009
Birmingham, AL
NGV America, in conjunction with Alabama Clean Fuels Coalition and Alagasco, held a clean vehicle conference in Birmingham, AL. With attendance over 100 people, the gathering was a great success.
One of the highlights of the show was the 40’ CNG city transit bus supplied by Foton America Bus Co., Inc. With its stylish design, it does not have the feel of the traditional “shoe box” shape that is currently prominent in the market.
The bus was used to shuttle participants to and from the Birmingham-Jefferson City Transit Authority’s (BJCTA) CNG fueling station. In attendance were authority officials from Mobile, Montgomery, and Birmingham’s transit authority. One Birmingham Transit Official asked what the price of the bus would be, and when told responded with, “That is $100,000 less than what we paid for our current fleet of CNG buses!”
The bus had traveled to Birmingham from Orlando, FL. Cliff Clare, CEO of Foton America, said that they had carefully planned out their trip to make sure that they had plenty of fuel to make it to each CNG fueling station.
“This was the first long-haul trip we made with the bus, so we were not sure the actual range we would have. To play it safe we were going to stop in Jacksonville, but realized that we could actually make it all the way to Atlanta before we had to re-fuel. We stopped into a Clean Energy station, and filled the bus up, then headed to Birmingham. However, had we known the range of the bus was 1,000 miles per fill we would have skipped Atlanta all together,” states Cliff.
With over 1,000 miles in range and a cost of $100,000 less than what BJCTA has paid for their buses, it would appear as though Foton America will be making waves in the transit market.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pictures of Foton's vehicles,
as well as the parts that
make up these state of the
art alternatively fueled
trucks and buses. |
|
See Photos>
|
|
|
|
|