Natural Gas Vehicle Cooperative Launches

Fleets and dealers team to purchase cheaper, cleaner, greener alternative fuel vehicles

Pasadena , Calif. - CALSTART (www.calstart.org) – North America’s leading advanced transportation technologies consortium –is pleased to announce the formation of the Natural Gas Vehicle Purchasing Cooperative (NGV Co-Op). As fleets and drivers face record-breaking gasoline and diesel prices, natural gas vehicles provide true low-cost alternatives, with natural gas fuel prices in the $2 per gallon range.

This NGV Co-Op will allow public and private fleet managers to quickly identify, locate, and purchase a wide range of light-, medium-, and select heavy- duty natural gas vehicles at the best prices through a cooperative bidding process. The vehicles that will be available in this program will include, but are not limited to, natural gas versions of:

Currently, the NGV Co-Op is available only in Arizona, Nevada, and California but may expand at a later date.

In this time of rapidly rising fuel costs, tight budgets, and vehicle emission regulations, purchasing natural gas vehicles is a sound economic and environmental decision. Purchasing natural gas vehicles is also an ideal way for fleets to reduce emissions from their vehicles. Exhaust emissions from a typical NGV are much lower than those from gasoline-powered vehicles. Natural gas vehicles also produce far fewer urban emissions than diesel vehicles.

The NGV Co-Op team is currently developing vehicle specifications that will be sent to vehicle dealers.

To get more information, fleets and car dealers selling natural gas vehicles can either contact Steve Sokolsky (ssokolsky@calstart.org; 510/307-8772) or Dave Kantor (dkantor@calstart.org 626/744-5611) or sign up on the CALSTART web site at www.calstart.org