TORONTO, (June 24, 2003) — Two Ontario carriers have agreed to be the first fleets to showcase Canada’s first multi-fleet deployment of natural gas in heavy-duty trucks.

Challenger Motor Freight of Cambridge and Simcoe-based Bruce R. Smith will each operate five heavy-duty trucks in real payload conditions on Hwy. 401 between Toronto and Windsor.

The 450-horsepower, 15-litre ISX G engines, manufactured by Vancouver-based Cummins Westport Inc., operate on liquefied natural gas instead of diesel. The company boasts that the engines match the power, torque and fuel efficiency diesel engines, while producing 50 per cent lower emissions of particulate matter, oxides of nitrogen and greenhouse gases.

Cummins Westport is working with a consortium, which also includes Enbridge Gas Distribution, in a two-year pilot project funded by Ottawa. The “Clean Air Corridor” project will receive $1 million from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) — a non- profit, arms length government organization — as well as a further $400,000 from Natural Resources Canada. Enbridge will source and deliver LNG to customer sites in London and Toronto.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to showcase our 450-horsepower ISX G engine along Canada’s busiest thoroughfare, where the biggest emissions gains can be made,” Cummins Westport president Hugh Foden said to reporters. “As the highest performance and most efficient alternative-fuelled engine developed today, the ISX G will make a compelling case for other fleet operators hauling goods along the 401 corridor.”

Foden also said his company plans to expand the use of LNG-powered heavy-duty trucks in urban centres all across Canada and the U.S.