Daimler Trucks North America has done well on the natural gas front, and even as recently as the Mid-America Trucking Show was bringing new natural gas product to the market (a natural-gas powered Freightliner Cascadia with 48-inch sleeper). So, it was a little surprising to hear that the global head of Daimler’s truck and bus business sounded somewhat down on natural gas – at least in the long-haul segment – when he spoke at the HDMA breakfast at Mid-America. I borrowed these quotes from Lou Smyrlis’ report, which can be read in its entirety here.

“The buzz was bigger last year…The enthusiasm is broken. We don’t see any long-haul applications so far. But it’s not going to go away,” Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard said to the sold-out breakfast event. “My alternative fuel is diesel and we will continue to perfect that technology.”

Bernhard cited several concerns with natural gas, including an immature infrastructure.

“Before we can introduce this technology further, the infrastructure has to be there. We still have 200 times more diesel stations than natural gas stations,” he pointed out.