What you need to know:
- Alternative fuel Class 8 truck adoption rose to 14.9% in 2024, led by CNG and LNG
- Diesel remains dominant, with most fleets hesitant to fully transition.
- Renewable diesel use is up 67% year-over-year, driven by California’s clean fuel standards.
- Pending federal tax incentives could boost adoption of biodiesel and renewable diesel by late 2025.
America's trucking fleets operating at least one non-diesel, alternative-powered Class 8 truck grew over the past three years ago but diesel trucks remain heavily dominant, according to fleet survey results published this month by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI).
The survey, which can be downloaded here, indicates most fleets are in no rush to move away from petroleum diesel but are still keeping a foot in the door, so to speak, for alternative power sources, specifically two types of natural gas.
ATRI says it relied "on marginal cost data collected directly and confidentially from for-hire motor carriers, specifically relating to their Class 8 tractor-trailer operations... [with data being collected] from February 2025 through May 2025."
The good news for alternative power advocates is that "The percentage of respondent fleets operating at least one Class 8 truck with an alternative energy system rose to 14.9% in 2024 - more than twice as high as 2021 (7.0%)."
The most commonly chosen alternative powertrain was not battery-electric, hydrogen fuel cell (FCEV), or hydrogen combustion, but rather natural gas. More specifically, compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquified natural gas (LNG) dominated with 3.33% and 0.7% of respondent fleets' trucks, respectively.
What green advocates won't like, as shown in ATRI's table below, is that a majority of fleets are operating "very few of these alternative energy trucks," with 96% of them belonging "to just four carriers that each operate over 1,000 petroleum diesel trucks."
ATRI
ATRI specifically points out that renewable diesel was not factored in because it was hard to isolate it from petroleum diesel because it's also used in traditional combustion engines and is often intermixed with traditional diesel in varying quantities.
Still, renewable diesel, along with biodiesel, continues to gain popularity. The Senate's version of the Trump Administration's "Big Beautiful Bill" (which has been sent back to the House, as of this writing), aims to restore the tax credit for renewable and biodiesel beginning this October.
[Related: 'Big Beautiful Bill' removes biofuel, renewable diesel 'disadvantage,' experts claim]
Both diesel types not only help lower the trucking industry's C02 emissions (compared to petroleum diesel) but are cheaper and immediate solutions compared to switching to battery-electric rigs.
Clean Trucking sister site CCJ notes that "renewable diesel consumption levels in 2023 reached 2.868 billion gallons annually in the U.S., according to ATRI – a nearly 67% increase from 2022. In 2022 the California Air Resources Board (CARB) reported that 73% of RD consumed in the U.S. was sold in California and received credits through its Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) regulatory program."
Although ATRI's survey did not include usage data of renewable natural gas (RNG) fuel systems, we recently reported that North America's 500th RNG operational facility is now up and running.
RNG is produced by capturing and purifying biogas, which is derived from the decomposition of organic matter like landfill and agricultural waste, and wastewater. It's then converted into sources of renewable fuel capable of powering medium- and heavy-duty trucks.
Hexagon Agility's natural gas fuel systems and the Cummins X15N engine are both readily available as well, further amplifying fleets' CNG, LNG, and RNG business cases.
[Related: Hexagon Agility doubles RNG fuel system production with new facility]
