AT&T spends US$565m to upgrade fleet
AT&T last week revealed plans to spend just over a half a billion dollars as part of a 10-year fleet modernisation program that will introduce more than 15,000 new energy efficient and environmentally-friendly cars into its corporate fleet.
AT&T expects to spend an estimated US$350 million to purchase about 8,000 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles and approximately US$215 million to replace 7,100 passenger cars with alternative-fuel models over the next 10 years.
The figures puts the average CNG vehicle price at about US$43,750 and each alternative-fuelled passenger car at roughly US$30,700.
“AT&T and other U.S. corporations have a unique opportunity to partner with the new administration as it works to lead the country out of this economic downturn,” said Randall Stephenson, chairman and chief executive officer of AT&T Inc. “While there are no easy solutions to the challenges facing our nation, this investment is a first step on our part to help boost other industries while at the same time encouraging wider use and production of efficient vehicles and domestic fuel alternatives.”
According to AT&T, the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) in Ann Arbor, Mich., estimates that the new vehicles will save 49 million gallons of gasoline and reduce carbon emissions by 211,000 metric tons over the 10-year deployment period. That is equivalent to removing the emissions from more than 38,600 traditional passenger vehicles for a year, the company said.
Online reports suggest that most of the vehicles will be produced by Ford with Toyota also being considered for part of the project.
For its new CNG fleet, the company said it will source the chassis of the cars domestically from a US car market, and then work with domestic suppliers to convert the chassis to run on CNG. AT&T will also work with natural gas service providers to build up to 40 new CNG fueling stations across its operating region to provide the fueling infrastructure needed for the new vehicles.
As it begins to retire gasoline-powered passenger vehicles in its fleet, AT&T has committed to replacing them with alternative-fuel models. The alternative-fuel vehicles, which will be used by employees in a variety of diverse work functions across AT&T’s operations, are expected to offer up to a 39% improvement in fuel economy and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 29%.
In 2009, AT&T will deploy nearly 800 of the CNG and hybrid electric vehicles. A Green Technology insignia will make the vehicles easy to identify on the road.
The new CNG/passenger vehicle commitment follows AT&T’s deployment of 105 alternative-fuel vehicles in more than 30 U.S. cities in June 2008. In addition, AT&T piloted four Ford Escape hybrids, which were deployed in late 2007 in California.
According to reports based on comments by AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson, the company is looking to purchase about 15,000 vehicles in total, including 8,000 vans and trucks that use natural gas, and 7,000 hybrid vehicles. The total investment for the project is US$565 million, the reports said.
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Category: Green corporations
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