Register

Peak Oil is You


Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)


Page added on May 4, 2015

Bookmark and Share

Ford F-150 propane, natural gas options

Ford F-150 propane, natural gas options thumbnail

Ford is expected to announce today plans to offer the 2016 F-150 full-size pickup with a package that prepares it to be powered by propane or compressed natural gas, an option that appeals to fleet buyers.

The announcement is to be made in Dallas at the Alternative Clean Transportation Expo.

The $315 factory-installed package would allow an F-150 with a 5-liter V8 to run on propane or compressed natural gas, making it the only half-ton pickup with that capability. The customer must then take their factory-prepped truck to a qualified vehicle modifier to install the proper fuel tanks, fuel lines and fuel injectors. The cost of the upfitting ranges from $7,500 to $9,500.

Dealers will start taking orders this summer; the truck goes on sale in the winter, said spokesman Mike Levine.

To run on the lower-cost gases, the trucks need an upgraded intake and exhaust valves as well as other modifications.

“We surveyed customers likely to use natural gas or propane, and 72% told us they want to have these alternative-fuel capabilities available on F-150 with the 5.0-liter V8 engine,” said Jon Coleman, Ford fleet sustainability and technology manager.

“We expect the gaseous-fuel prep package will be even more popular than it was on the 2014 F-150 with the 3.7-liter V6 engine,” Coleman said, noting the fuel does not change towing capability or payload beyond subtracting the weight of the installed CNG or propane system.

Fleet buyers appreciate the hedge against fluctuating gasoline prices which may be low now but are expected to increase at some point.

Compressed natural gas costs are currently the equivalent of $2.11 per gallon of gasoline, compared with $2.58 per gallon on average for gasoline. CNG is mostly methane and about 85% of the natural gas supply is produced domestically. In parts of the country where it is produced, the cost is as low as $1.

The F-150 becomes the eighth commercial vehicle from Ford offered with a factory-installed option to convert to propane and CNG.

Detroit Free Press



29 Comments on "Ford F-150 propane, natural gas options"

  1. rockman on Mon, 4th May 2015 6:43 am 

    Useless info IMHO. Some clever person here needs to find out the miles per $ of these trucks for both propane and CNG and compare that to miles per $ of gasoline/diesel. Then we would understand the potential. Thanks in advance. LOL.

  2. Davy on Mon, 4th May 2015 7:13 am 

    A niche at best and a joke of an article.

    I felt at one point over the road trucks might be a good application. We could use some diversity in our vital heavy freight system where the majority of our food is moved. As it stands now a liquid fuel crisis has the potential to reduce food delivering dangerously. A liquid fuel shortage will require a huge drop in discretionary driving to support emergency and vital services. I have read studies that say that reduction will be in the vicinity of 50% reduction in discretionary driving. How about that effect on economic activity and by extension BAU in the US and globally. That will destroy BAU within a few weeks.

  3. Lawfish1964 on Mon, 4th May 2015 7:14 am 

    A mere $7,500 to $9,500 on top of the sticker price to convert to CNG? I don’t plan to spend that much on my next vehicle.

  4. steve on Mon, 4th May 2015 8:16 am 

    I can remember when only people that worked had pick up trucks , now they market them to every pencil neck geek out there!

  5. Kenz300 on Mon, 4th May 2015 9:07 am 

    It is time to end the oil monopoly on transportation fuels.

    Bring on the electric, flex-fuel, hybrid, biofuel, ethanol, biodiesel, CNG, LNG and hydrogen fueled vehicles.

    Give consumers a choice……

  6. Plantagenet on Mon, 4th May 2015 10:56 am 

    Bad timing for Ford. When gasoline was over $4 gallon people would’ve bought these things, but in the current oil glut the demand won’t be there.

  7. Right-Wing Greenie on Mon, 4th May 2015 11:17 am 

    Sorry to burst your perpetually negative bubbles folks. I work for an oil company in Farmington NM and we have already start converting our 300 truck fleet to propane. Propane bought near the source is far cheaper than gasoline, results in less maintenance and GHG. The constant negativity on this site just amazes me.

  8. Northwest Resident on Mon, 4th May 2015 11:26 am 

    Right-Wing — Great! So all the oil industry employees working on or near propane sources will convert their rigs to running on propane. That should make a huge and significant beneficial impact on the economy, and a big step toward solving our rapidly declining energy problems. Until those employees get fired or laid off and are no longer near a propane source, that is…

    P.S. What some see as constant negativity might be interpreted as others as constant reality.

    What’s your definition of negativity? Maybe you have a specific example?

  9. BobInget on Mon, 4th May 2015 12:10 pm 

    For three G’3 extra a person can buy a diesel.
    The bad news, Ford Chev and Dodge sell only 3/4 ton or bigger in diesel. The good news, unlike the lighter 1/2 tons big trucks entitle any business to take a substantial Fed tax credit.

    All ‘Big Three’ have great 300,000 mile TDI diesel engines. Get a truck more capable plus get 1/2 ton gasoline type milage.

    Because without diesel we all starve*, at some price, it will always be around.

    Resale value on diesels far exceeds gas.
    We just sold a 22 year old GM PU. It will still be running ten years from now with no engine
    down time.

    Having said all that we are entering the natural gas era for ground and seaborne transportation.
    Trains, ships, big rigs, already using CNG.
    WE really do have a shitload of Natty in the US.

    * Until all farm equipment is sold bi-fuel.

  10. Davy on Mon, 4th May 2015 12:11 pm 

    Greenie hating right winger dinger, the negativity is in response to the deluge of you right winger dingers excessive and distorted hopium of which amazes us here on this site.

    I think it is great you are using local propane. It is your action and thousands of others that will help but winger dinger, none of those efforts will ever scale to what is needed to adjust and mitigate to what is ahead and coming soon.

  11. Dredd on Mon, 4th May 2015 12:21 pm 

    “She don’t mind, she don’t mind, she don’t mind [propane]” E.Clapton

  12. Right-Wing Greenie on Mon, 4th May 2015 12:24 pm 

    Northwest, I’ve been a regular reviewer of this site (and the Oil Drum before that) for 10+ years. I worked in Alaska for 33 years (mostly on the North Slope), and made a late career move to the San Juan gas basin here in NW New Mexico. I am definitely an industry insider like Rockman, and I personally believe peak oil is approaching–I put my money where my belief is and just signed up to install a 6.9 kW solar panel system on my retirement house in Phoenix. I find when discussion is kept to relevant topics like peak oil or other technical topics, I have enjoyed the give and take in the comments– But what has turned me off is the constant negativity and demonizing I see, which has kept me from ever commenting until now. Seems like whenever an article doesn’t fit the prevailing worldview of the readers on this site, it quickly gets dismissed as ‘MSM propaganda’.

    Back to propane… even a relatively innocent article about a niche market for propane trucks gets this treatment. Alternative fuels are a small mitigation measure for sure, but we will need everything and there are lots of fleets (like ours) that can take advantage of it. We are already seeing big savings on our pilot which is why we have decided to expand it.

  13. Northwest Resident on Mon, 4th May 2015 12:41 pm 

    Right-Wing G — I know what you mean, now that you mention it. I never saw you post before, so I didn’t know where you were coming from. Now I do. Like you, I suspect that thousands of people are reading these articles and comments daily but not commenting. I also suspect that the negativity and rudeness and insulting behavior so frequently displayed on this forum by certain individuals is another reason why more people don’t post. Glad you decided to chime in! Back to the topic at hand — it makes sense to convert to and use propane whenever and wherever that is economically viable. But it is just a drop in the bucket in terms of total demand for transportation fuel, I’m sure you agree.

  14. Mike989 on Mon, 4th May 2015 12:50 pm 

    Wow. Range Anxiety on Steroids.

  15. apneaman on Mon, 4th May 2015 1:58 pm 

    I had a propane Chevy van 15 years ago in Alberta. It was great and they had vehicle propane at gas stations everywhere. Not so much now. How will I be able to “Coal Roll” liberals burning propane?

  16. Speculawyer on Mon, 4th May 2015 2:17 pm 

    Hank Hill is smiling.

  17. Speculawyer on Mon, 4th May 2015 2:19 pm 

    Why do the conversions cost from $7,500 to $9,500? Seems pretty steep.

  18. Speculawyer on Mon, 4th May 2015 2:21 pm 

    “When gasoline was over $4 gallon people would’ve bought these things, but in the current oil glut the demand won’t be there.”

    Gasoline is over $4/gallon where I live in Northern California.

  19. coffeeguyzz on Mon, 4th May 2015 2:25 pm 

    To follow up, briefly, on ‘the age of gas’, ‘shitload of natty’, rapidly expanding transportation applications of natgas …
    Range Resources has just brought online two wells these past few months in Pennsylvania, both in Washington county.
    One, targeting the Utica formation, had an IP of 59MMcf, is flowing at a constrained rate of 20MMcfd, and has produced over 1.2Bcf in its first few months. Depicted in oil equivalent terms, that is over 10,000boe IP, almost 3 1/2 mboed, totaling almost a quarter million boe so far.
    Last week, on a pad just a few miles away, Range announced the largest IP yet targeting the shallower Marcellus formation, with an output of 43MMcfe.
    There exists a third productive formation, the Upper Devonian, directly above much of the Marcellus.

    NWR, UPS just announced the purchase of an additional 60 LNG fueled trucks to replace their aging, diesel fueled rigs. They, as every single business in this country recognizes, MUST convert to the most economically viable fuel lest they be overtaken by their competitors who most assuredly will use said fuel.
    The build out in infrastructure will hasten this process for non commercial consumers.

    It’s already well underway.

  20. Davy on Mon, 4th May 2015 3:54 pm 

    Well, I owe RW Greenie an apology. I saw the incongruous juxtaposition “right wing and greenie” together and I instantly judged him as a trasher and bashed of peakers and greenies. Instead he is actually right wing and green. I hope you spread the word among the right wingers.

    RW sounds like you would be a good contributor. As for the negativity and the personal insults join the friggen human race. Most of us humans are sluts. Tune it out or join in. It goes with the territory as a the Ape from Canada points out. Again sorry for judging you.

    P.S. A doomer will tell you Phoenix is a bad location post collapse but it sounds like you are not doomed oriented.

  21. Northwest Resident on Mon, 4th May 2015 4:07 pm 

    coffeeguyzz — It will take a lot of oil and a lot of investment to build out propane infrastructure for non-commercial users. And time. Three things that we don’t have much of, and less of every day.

    How much propane is produced worldwide on a daily basis? How many vehicles would that much propane power on a daily basis assuming the infrastructure was there? 0.001% is my guess. I could be way off, but I’ll bet it isn’t even one percent. Too little. Too late.

  22. Davy on Mon, 4th May 2015 4:23 pm 

    Yeap, NR, and what about all the back country folks needing propane heat and all the grain that needs to be dried? We need to be careful about putting any vital commodity to too many uses and risking the basics. Besides, can you see a shortage of propane during the summer barbecue season? That could cause riots.

  23. Oilfield Greenie on Mon, 4th May 2015 6:53 pm 

    I decided to change my name since I’m not really all that right-wing, but at least for now I am still Oilfield. Based on how other posters often get treated here, I haven’t decided if I will post much but we’ll see. Regarding methane, ethane, propane and butane, they are all in huge surplus so don’t worry about running out for several decades, although I can’t say the same about oil. Ethane is so worthless right now that we actually re-inject some of it back into the natural gas that we sell to raise the BTU content. The mid-west shortages were due to transportation bottlenecks, not supply. Also I should mention that the airport shuttle buses in Phoenix all run on CNG, the airport shuttle vans that go to and from the airport run on propane, and almost every new garbage truck there runs on CNG. In the oil industry, more and more drilling rigs and fracing operations are being converted to run on field gas, CNG, LNG or propane. Railroads are piloting LNG. These alt fuels make a lot of sense for fleets, but don’t usually make sense for the single user, but they do back out diesel and gasoline to use elsewhere so the effect is the same.

    While I’m at it, regarding electric vehicles, we have an electric golf cart in AZ and we use it as second car. Also, last week I test drove an electric motorcycle (Zero DS)and was very impressed. I didn’t buy it (yet)because I opted to get the solar panels first before APS raises the grid access fees this summer like they are proposing. My 6.9 kW system is sized for net-metering and will easily power my peak A/C load in summer and send some surplus back to the grid. Other than fixed costs of around $10 a month, my electric bill should be zero. Phoenix is no worse off than a lot of other places and in some cases its better. Per capital water consumption has been dropping for years (agriculture uses far more), solar panels and electric vehicles work great, the infrastructure is long-lived, and all you need is shorts and sandals most of the time. I’m far more worried about places like Alaska where I lived until 2013.

  24. Apneaman on Mon, 4th May 2015 8:36 pm 

    Oilfield Greenie. you could not be more right about the incredible, almost incalculable, amounts of methane on the planet. In fact, as a reward to humanity, for burning the stored carbon, mother nature will probable release gigatons of FREE methane to all of us via an increasingly warming arctic ocean and permafrost meltdown.. This could happen with just one or two more 10ths of a degree Celsius of warming. It will be awesome. All are problems, energy and otherwise will be solved…or cease to exist rather. Whether we get it all in a burp or just increasing amounts is all that is in doubt. The process is well under way.

    Methane levels as high as 2845ppb

    http://arctic-news.blogspot.ca/2015/04/methane-levels-as-high-as-2845ppb.html

  25. Apneaman on Mon, 4th May 2015 8:41 pm 

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/extinction_causes/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis

    Catastrophic methane release

  26. Nony on Mon, 4th May 2015 8:43 pm 

    What if we could collect it as it burps. Maybe we could get prices into the 1s?! Association for the study of peak oil and GAS will be bumming.

  27. Davy on Mon, 4th May 2015 9:17 pm 

    Oil field, I was in AZ two weeks ago in Sedona. I love AZ but living there is another story with doom in mind. Arizona has a water problem within a region with water problems. Water stress could collapse your regional economies and by extension cause severe economic stress to the rest of the country. It is not unrealistic to say these things.

    The southwest climate and the socio economics of the southwest are setting up to collide in limits of growth for not only financial and energy reasons but also water. Things are good enough now but barely and for how long. Maybe the rains will come along with a snow pack let’s hope. Yet, the southwestern development keeps plowing along. This is a bad combination that should have everyone in the southwest worried. Even if the results are only small economic contraction to adjust to a water crisis, contraction and BAU don’t mix.

    I am not saying AZ is screwed and I am alright in Missouri. The reality of the situation is any contraction anywhere in the country will reverberate throughout the US economy. So, I am indirectly in harm’s way from what appears to be coming to the southwest.

  28. Davy on Tue, 5th May 2015 4:51 am 

    Oilfield, here is a great article from ZH with a talk by Pat Melroy. I am sure you recognize her name. Pat was former general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority from 1991 until she retired in 2014. She gives a sobering assessment of this great Colorado River reservoir.
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-04/leaking-las-vegas-forced-rationing-looms-lake-mead-faces-federal-water-emergency

    I mention this because when we have water rationing on such a large scale the effects systematically will be similar to a food and fuel shortage. Of course in the beginning the effects will not be terrible. The idiocies of people in these desert regions will end.

    I have mentioned this on numerous occasions a crisis will change attitudes and poor lifestyles. Las Vegas and many places in California will be the first test to this obvious common sense Davy salad item. BAUtopians heap scorn on Davy doom salad but this is it try splainin that away corns. Crisis effects necessary change and only through crisis will effective change be met. BAU cannot degrowth so effective change to shortages of foundational resources will damage and could destroy BAU.

    We will pluck the low hanging fruit of the reserve of our foundational resources of food, water, and oil at some point with the end of poor choices. When this last reserve happens bad lifestyles, bad attitudes, and poor development choices will end. IOW the end BAUtopian fantasies that economics will effect proper change and economic discipline to maintain BAU. This means the end of Business as Usual.

    Currently BAUtopian economics say markets with supply and demand discipline will forces change on peoples wants. That thinking is fine until a level is breached and that breached level is society’s foundational resources food, water, and oil.

    The southwest is getting close to catastrophic contraction. I say catastrophic because BAU cannot contract. These seemingly minor behavioral changes are the tip of the iceberg. As the steps continue to increase bone and muscle are cut once the fat is gone. The all-important leisure industry, retirement development, and irrigated agriculture will be cut. Energy will be affected. All manner of industry may be curtailed. The snow birds and Sunbelt retirees will not have a place to roost.

    This contraction has consequences and unintended consequences for the economy and will further stress the region. This economic stress will reverberate through the nation’s economy just like any large scale natural disaster will. This is serious business and nearby. This at a time the financial system is at limits of repression of normal market activity and debt monitorization. This at a time we are seeing demand and supply destruction affect oil.

    These are limits of growth issues with a dose of climate change thrown in. It is well known the southwest has historic droughts. Yet, climate change is surely playing a role of some kind in this. Climate change is set to get worse and worse in this situation is dangerous.

    BAUtopians are not concerned. They think their economics will do its magic with technology and substitution of activities and lifestyles. BAUtopians still don’t get it with foundational resources. They can’t be substituted and they can’t be save with technology. Foundational resources in scarcity can only be mitigated and adapted to. Most societies in the past abandon such locations. Why would ours be any different? This may be sky is falling Davy doom salad but it is something we must recognize as possible and increasingly nearby. This is especially relevant for folks like Oilfield who are thinking of roosting in Phoenix.

  29. Apneaman on Tue, 5th May 2015 5:21 pm 

    Take a deep breath and hope for the best.
    ////////////////////////////////////////////

    Flawed Methane Monitor Underestimates Leaks at Oil and Gas Sites
    Researchers find there may be drastically more methane in the air than is being reported to industry and government.

    http://insideclimatenews.org/news/05052015/flawed-methane-monitor-underestimates-leaks-oil-and-gas-sites

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *