Propane Powers Ahead for Medium Duty Sector

As the political waters around alternative fuels are getting choppy, propane remains a stable solution for medium and heavy-duty fleets.

April 1, 2025

Matt Wolfe

Port fleets are becoming more commonly fueled by propane. (PERC)

The seemingly constant changing winds of North American emissions regulations have put many alternative propulsion-supplying OEMs on high alert over the first quarter of this year. However, not all alternative fuel developers are currently sitting on pins and needles.

SAE Media interviewed Tucker Perkins, president and CEO of the Propane Education & Research Council (PERC), at NTEA’s Work Truck Week 2025 in Indianapolis on what the overall picture looks like for propane with the potential shift in alternative fuel investment, and what the selling points are for propane are in the commercial truck industry.

Is there a tipping point where propane is going to see a sudden jump up in popularity? Or is it going to be more of a progressive trickle?

We’re still the alternative fuel of choice for medium duty. They have a really strong demand for propane versus other alternative fuels. Take hydrogen, for example. That’s usually a short conversation for these fleets because of the initial price, operating cost and availability. We have more fleets talking to us right now for applications like school buses. There are propane applications available for the Ford F-750, a couple GM chassis, and others. There’s a lot of people talking about propane for the same reasons. Which are essentially no NOx, no particulate matter, which means the amount of greenhouse gas is cut, and the operating cost is half of the diesel comparable. The beverage industry is where we’re trying to make real inroads. Image is important for a lot of these companies, so therefore emissions are still important to their numbers.

What is the long-term outlook for propane in terms of cost stability and availability?

We probably make twice the amount of propane domestically today than we made when I started in this field. And we’re starting to put plants in places that have been, to a degree, short of propane such as the Northeast and South. It would really help get more of that infrastructure built so that we can get market penetration in those areas we haven’t been able to serve. Even so, over the past couple years, we haven’t seen big price fights and didn't have any supply issues.

How will the changes in EPA regulations affect the popularity of propane?

Accord to the Propane Education & Research Council, LNG/CNG offers numerous advantages over other alternative fuels. (PERC)

We really just need clarity. Everything that’s happened over the last couple years really has upset everybody. Especially when you have regulators like CARB with the stance that an electric vehicle is the only vehicle that should be in California, other than maybe hydrogen. Which isn’t really a viable stance when the market largely can’t afford those vehicles.

Is there also a market opportunity for propane for stationary power generation?

Definitely, we’re seeing growth in that area that’s absolutely insane. From a Generac generator at your house to the data center being built today outside of existing natural gas infrastructure. It can also be a fuel for a power generation station for the EV charging market for medium truck and bus. Five years ago, we didn’t really have a demand for propane as an EV charging station fuel. Now, natural gas is the first fuel of choice for charging stations in a large-scale area where they don’t have existing electrical infrastructure. It went from nothing to the possibility seeming endless in less than half a decade.

What are your thoughts on the announcement of the X15N natural gas engine from Cummins last year?

The Cummins brand is so powerful. And now that they have a natural gas engine in that displacement range, we can match the thermal efficiency of diesel. When we started working on these systems, I’m not sure I believed that was feasible. But now we don’t lose anything to diesel in terms of warranty cost or thermal efficiency. And really, most the time CNG is a much cheaper solution if you look at total cost. Just the aftertreatment alone for CNG versus diesel is crazy. You almost need another truck to haul the aftertreatment system around. Can you imagine the parasitic losses that occur from all that equipment? And we don’t need any of it. We’re meeting current regulations with a basic catalyst.