Stretch Your Transportation Budget With Clean-Diesel School Buses https://thomasbuiltbuses.com/bus-advisor/articles/stretch-your-budget-with-diesel-school-buses/
It’s an ongoing debate: which fuel type provides the lowest total cost of ownership to districts?
Opinions abound on all sides of the issue. A gasoline-powered bus has a low initial purchase price. Propane fuel costs much less than clean-diesel, and while compressed natural gas (CNG) buses have a high initial purchase price, advocates contend that, after the initial cost is recouped, the savings on CNG fuel contribute to a low total cost of ownership. But which is correct? The problem with determining the total cost of ownership of any fuel type for a bus is that, in most cases, not all factors are considered. This creates one-sided arguments and speculations. But when all factors are considered, Clean-diesel provides the lowest total cost of ownership over the lifetime of a bus. — Here’s why : ENGINE EFFICIENCY vs FUEL COST The more efficient the engine, the less fuel it burns and the further it travels on a single gallon of fuel. So even if one type of fuel is less expensive per gallon-equivalent (like
gasoline or propane), the efficiency of that engine type may negate the savings. Clean-diesel is the most energy-efficient fuel type, which means that it outperforms other fuels in operating range and fuel economy per gallon of fuel. On average, a clean-diesel school bus can travel approximately 510 miles on a tank of diesel vs. only 270 miles on gasoline, based on the same standard-sized fuel tanks. Newer engines, like the Detroit™ DD5™ and DD8™ diesel engines, show an additional three percent increase in fuel efficiency. This difference in range and fuel economy quickly mitigates the cost difference between gasoline and diesel fuel. Diesel always has been and remains the most fuel- efficient engine (due to more BTUs), providing nearly 90 percent better fuel economy and a longer operating range than any other similar-sized gasoline, propane or compressed natural gas (CNG) engines. Plus, new technologies and innovations like the Detroit DD5 engine can help you achieve even greater fuel economy and lower fuel costs down the road.
With new Detroit® engine technology, after-treatment issues are now a thing of the past.
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