Hexagon Agility has opened a new facility in Rialto, Cali., to meet increasing demand for renewable natural gas fuel systems.

The new facility will produce nearly 35,000 fuel systems per year, doubling the company’s previous capacity.

The systems are designed for Class 6, 7, and 8 trucks operating on renewable natural gas.

Eric Bippus, executive vice-president of commercial group and systems engineering, Hexagon: One of the reasons we’re expanding our footprint in North America is the launch of the Cummins X15N natural gas engine. We expect adoption of that, as Cummins is saying, [to be] as high as 8% to 10% adoption, which would be 30,000- 35,000 vehicles in North America, which we’re preparing to support out of this facility with our other facilities around North America.

The new facility replaces Hexagon’s previous one in Fontana, California.

The company says the new facility will also create jobs in the local community while supporting the transportation sector’s transition to cleaner fuels.

Eric Bippus: We have facilities in Salisbury, N.C., Lincoln,Neb.. Kelowna, B.C., and now this new opening here in Rialto, Cali. Our plan to install at least 80 to 100 fuel systems per month, primarily that will be operated in the state of California, where renewable natural gas in the pipeline is approximately 98% renewable versus organic.

So great opportunity here in this particular marketplace to have a solution that is clean but allows the fleet to also maintain its normal business operation. So, when you put a renewable natural gas vehicle on the road today, it’s roughly a one-to-one equivalency with a diesel vehicle. Some of the other clean solutions that are out there require 1.5 or maybe two vehicles to replace a single diesel. So at our Rialto facility, we’ll have various use types. It could be a class eight over the road truck could be a refuse vehicle. We also assemble roof bound transit systems here at this facility, and some of the OEMs that we partner with would be Gilligan, Peterbilt, Kenworth, Autocar, Battle Motors, Freightliner, all the OEMs that have compressed natural gas engine options, we will install our systems for various use patterns.