COLUMBUS, Ind. – U.S. and Canadian Class 8 natural gas truck retail sales for the first eight months of 2022 outpaced the same period in 2021 by 18%, according to Alternative Fuels Quarterly, a report from ACT Research.
Although retail sales of natural gas Class 8 trucks are up, fueling infrastructure continues to contract, the report stated.
“Sales of natural gas (NG)-powered vehicles, as reported by the six major truck OEMs, who account for approximately 60% of the heavy-duty (HD) NG market, were mixed in the June to August time period, with June dropping 33% year-over-year, July surging 204% compared to last July and August up 20% versus a year ago,” Steve Tam, vice president at ACT Research, said. “In the near term, June was relatively benign compared to May (-4%), while July spiked 82% month-over-month. Unable to maintain, volumes pulled back 33% from July to August. Combined, sales in the three-month period extended and increased the year-to-date gain, with the first eight months of the year outpacing the same period in 2021 by 18%.”
Tam said there are currently 822 public compressed natural gas (CNG) stations open in the U.S. as of mid-September 2022 — the vast majority of which can accommodate a heavy-duty (HD) vehicle.
“The liquid NG (LNG) station count at the same period was 54, with all able to serve Class 8 vehicles,” Tam said. “This translates to 15 fewer public CNG station and no change to the number of public LNG station since mid-June 2022.”
Tam said that given the existing station count’s downward trajectory, it isn’t a surprise that planned CNG stations are also contracting.
“On a year-over-year basis, the number of planned private CNG stations was unchanged while planned public stations have declined more than 38%,” Tam said.
Tam said it is worth noting that private U.S. stations also exist and are being planned.
“These currently include 4,572 existing stations and 6 planned sites, a decrease of 31 existing stations from last quarter, but we presume these are temporarily offline, rather than shuttered,” he said.
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