COMMENT: NG champions await diesel price resurgence

Westport Innovations’ recent low-key announcement that it had completed a US$2.7m natural gas (NG) fuelling engine project for Daimler makes clear that, despite falling worldwide diesel prices, NG is an alternative fuel with a significant future.

As diesel fuel prices have continued to fall in North America especially, so too has trucking companies’ interest in alternative fuels, most notably NG. At the end of 2012, NG was, on average US$1.50 cheaper per diesel gallon equivalent than diesel. But by April 2015, that price advantage had shrunk to only 42 cents, according to market research company ACT.