Earlier this month clean fuel company Blue Energy Motors launched India’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fuelled green truck manufacturing plant in Chakan, Pune. The facility was inaugurated by Sh. Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister, Road Transport and Highways. Now, on September 12, BEM announced that it has launched its first LNG trucks with BS VI-compliant engines.
The facility was opened on September 02 and reflects BEM’s intention to ‘disrupt the trucking industry in India’ by manufacturing clean energy, near-zero emission trucks.
Having signed an agreement with FPT Industrial – the global powertrain brand of Iveco Group (IVG) – the company will launch its first trucks with FPT’s BS VI-compliant engines, capable of reducing CO2 emissions up to 30% compared to ‘conventional solutions’.
Commenting on the announcement of the new facility, Sh. Anirudh Bhuwalka, CEO, BEM, stated here that India’s first LNG truck manufacturing facility in Chakan, Pune, is first step towards pioneering the green trucking revolution. Further, he added that BEM aim to decarbonise the environment by providing an immediate solution and breaking the barriers of economic returns.
The first model will be a 5528 4×2 tractor equipped with the FPT N67 NG engine, utilising a 1,000 litre-cryogenic tank for transportation of the LNG cargo. Regarded as one of the powerful natural gas engines in the market, FPT’s technology is compatible with compressed natural gas (CNG), LNG, and biomethane.
The engine harnesses stoichiometric combustion to optimise fuel consumption and reduce noise in comparison with diesel engines.
This agreement is of the utmost importance for FPT Industrial, now and in the future, as we want our leading technologies to play a key role to support the ecological transition of one of the world’s largest vehicle markets.
The union government currently has a plan to set up 1,000 LNG stations over the next five years, including on major highways and trunk routes across the country to support longer-distance, heavy duty haulage.
