As the world moves towards cleaner-burning energy, it is no wonder why automotive manufacturers seek alternative fuels to power their vehicles, whether for personal, business, or commercial use. To enable a positive change to help society, the environment, and consumers, U-Haul has led an initiative to change the way movers get fueled. With us being the largest provider and distributor of propane in the United States, it is no wonder why we have been involved in Autogas for decades. Within the last decade, we have found that Autogas' use is hugely more efficient than diesel and gasoline, leading to the push to find an alternative fuel that can give consumers a more extended range of energy, giving them extreme efficiency.
In doing so, U-Haul found that taking a portion of our moving vehicles and converting them to run on Autogas has decreased the cost for both us as a company and the actual customer. It gives the consumer the option to use either gas or Autogas, depending on their price point needs. Providing Consumers with the ability to go from gas to autogas on the fly; provides U-Haul an advantage over the competition in terms of quality of equipment and value in the long run. Pushing the progression of alternative fuels and energy will only help the productivity of do-it-yourself movers and how people use moving trucks and equipment.
To discover the advantages of Autogas, U-Haul will showcase the differences, benefits, and capabilities that Autogas offers to gasoline throughout this article to help you better understand its strengths and shortcomings.
What Is Autogas?
When you think of gasoline in general, you either think of unleaded gas that goes into your everyday compact size vehicle, premium unleaded into your high-performance muscle car, or diesel that goes in a Ford F-350 6.7L Powerstroke pickup truck. For many years, there has been a push and movement to innovate using alternative fuels such as hydrogen, battery-powered, natural gas, and propane (Autogas). As of late, anyone who is thinking of alternative sources of automotive powertrain automatically thinks of electrification such as a Mustang Mach-E or a hybrid vehicle such as Ford Escape. These vehicles are just the latest to use alternative energy to aid in fuel efficiency and productivity.
Unfortunately, electric vehicles are a secondary power source that must be powered from a primary source such as natural gas or power plant. It is how your electric vehicle or any of your home appliances are powered through a secondary power source. This area is where a primary energy source such as gasoline triumphs because it doesn't have to rely on other forms of energy to sustain its energy-making capabilities. At the same time, automotive manufacturers have made tremendous progress in gasoline efficiency throughout their vehicle lineup. Gasoline still has its shortcoming that it will not be able to overcome due to its composition. It is why U-Haul has been at the leading forefront to integrate Autogas into our fleet for many years.
Now you're probably wondering what exactly Autogas is? Well, we are glad that you asked! Autogas is a form of energy that is a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG); it is a common name that’s applied when propane is used for road vehicles such as cars, trucks, or commercial vehicles. When you compare diesel and gasoline to Autogas, it is substantially less harsh on the environment by omitting reduced greenhouse gases, including carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen oxide. These are just a few of the harsh greenhouse gas emissions that everyday vehicles omit into the atmosphere. That is why U-Haul has pushed to convert a significant portion of its moving trucks to CNG, which helps the consumer have a lower operating cost and helps the environment at the same time.
Throughout the United States, individuals know that propane is used for cooking, grilling, and heating. Whereas when people hear Autogas, there can be an uncertainty of what application it is used. Unlike regular Gasoline, Autogas comprises two significant parts: carbon and eight parts hydrogen, helping produce a very low carbon emission and a fuel that at a lower cost to the user. It comes from two domestic processes, including crude oil refining, and is the by-product of producing natural gas. It is because it upsides the value added to your vehicle fleet. U-Haul has been pushing the envelope to move the truck industry from relying on gas to using alternative fuels to expand the green energy marketplace and help the consumer's bottom line who needs to move or travel farther for less.
Autogas vs Gasoline
For more than a century, gasoline and diesel have been the lifeblood of the American economy, helping everyday people to and from work, ship products, and help an entire nation grow. As technology has progressed, so has the notion of being more mindful of the environment to serve consumers, users, and surrounding nature. There are many benefits to using autogas over gasoline; for example:
- The overall cost of autogas is less expensive than gasoline or diesel.
- Autogas produces reduced CO2 and harmful greenhouse gas emissions over diesel and gas.
- According to vehicle reports, autogas has tremendous performance over a conventional gasoline-powered engine while making equivalent horsepower and torque.
- Autogas is domestically manufactured and produced, which means it is American-made through and through.
Being environmentally friendly doesn't mean that you have to sacrifice performance and reliability. Autogas allows the best of both worlds; for example, to get your internal combustion engine to work more efficiently, it has to have a cleaner burn inside the combustion chamber; therefore, you need cleaner fuel for that to occur. With gasoline, there is a more considerable risk for what is known as detination and degradation within your engine, which can be hard-hitting on your bottom line budget. While diesel engines are already costly to maintain, Autogas can help step in to be the equalizer in reducing overall operating costs for a fleet like U-Haul's Trucks and Vans.
Running costs for a size of the fleet of vehicles as large as the U-Haul infrastructure can be pretty challenging. Autogas has four main variables in which autogas excels over gasoline:
- Surplus: One of the biggest benefactors that autogas has is the supply and low demand throughout the United States. Due to this, there is an abundance of autogas to go around. In turn, this makes the cost of each gallon of autogas very inexpensive compared to the price of gas.
- Economical: Over time, autogas prices have averaged about $1.00 per gallon less than other fuel resources such as diesel or gasoline, leading to a highly cost-efficient energy source to aid consumers do-it-yourself-movers that come to U-Haul.
- Safety: Autogas, when handled properly, can be exceedingly safer than other forms of fuels. When using autogas, you will need a specific tank, which is twenty times more puncture-proof and resistant when comparing them to conventional gasoline tanks.
- Proven Technology: Around the world, so many countries rely on autogas as a means of fuel for automobiles, and transportation is the sole indicator that it has long-term effectiveness.
These variables prove that as technology and time move forward, companies like U-Haul and others will keep pushing the envelope for more autogas vehicles to ensure lower running costs for their consumers and, at the end of the day, help the environment along the way.
What Makes Autogas Unique?
Unlike diesel or gasoline, autogas has many more benefactors than ordinary fuels. Creating more sustainable energy for the long haul will ensure that a vehicle fleet like U-Haul and other companies provide their consumers suitable options for their needs. While at the same time keeping running costs both low for the consumer and the entity. Saving money doesn't mean you have to sacrifice quality; it helps drive sustainability for the long haul. Autogas holds its unique trait upon itself; it is the abundance of opportunities for many different uses in which it makes it special.
One thing to feel great about is that the production of autogas is predominantly ninety-eight percent made in the United States, so as Americans, you can feel great about supporting the local and national economy while helping reduce carbon nox. Unfortunately, one issue is that most Americans today are reluctant to change the way they use transportation and accept alternative energy forms. You may think about how my propane can power my cooking grill at home power and fuel my vehicle. Well, they are not the same in composition, but they are close.
Here is why autogas has to be more concentrated to be able to power diesel and gasoline vehicles. A proper supply of propane autogas to your engine is controlled by a regulator or vaporizer, much like the fuel injectors that are in today's modern fuel systems for passenger vehicles. It allows Autogas to adequately supply each cylinder's fuel to put out maximum performance at RPM variations. Fuel-injected cars and trucks require a more refined fuel to be equally sprayed from the fuel injectors into the combustion chamber; therefore, they need a greater refining process. In turn, you will be able to get greater fuel efficiency over the standard gasoline or diesel in the process while feeling amazing that you were able to save running costs and help the environment in the process.
Why Use U-Haul Autogas?
For the last decade, automotive manufacturers have worked diligently to figure out ways to develop more options for companies and individuals alike to take advantage of LPG. Since 2013, U-Haul has paved the way for the entire moving industry to push the boundaries on changing the status quo. Providing customers a plethora of options is what we do best at U-Haul, which is why we have worked tirelessly to implement autogas into so many of our moving trucks and vans to allow our customers' choice fueling options. For example, if a customer has a long journey across the country, it will be more cost-efficient in fuel costs to use autogas than to utilize gasoline or diesel.
Among many U-Haul consumers and various companies that use autogas or (LPG) to power, their vehicles turn with the times to keep up with modern technology, innovation, and alternative fuels. There are many reasons why so many company vehicle fleets, including U-Haul's moving trucks and vans, have and are changing over to using Autogas. An alternative form of energy that is more fuel-efficient, cost-effective, and helps omit CO2 fromthe atmosphere. It will help the overall carbon footprint that a complete truck fleet can produce over five years, not to mention the cost efficiency it will be your bottom line. With U-Haul being the largest provider of propane autogas and propane in the United States, it is no wonder why U-Haul has been leading the way in autogas technology and conversion.
From being more fuel and cost-efficient to emission friendly, autogas has various capabilities to get you, your fleet, and consumers wherever they need to go. Thanks to U-Haul, you won't have to worry about filling up your LPG-equipped vehicle; with more than 1,100 locations nationwide, we have you covered no matter where your journey takes you. Learn more about the U-Haul autogas program.