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General Motors: Natural gas bi-fuel commercial pickup truck coming in 2012
Monday, October 03, 2011
By Michael Wayland 

Note from DCEDD Marc Saluk... IMPCO Automotive is just a few hundred yards over the state line un UCI and is, of course, a big part of the Union City community. Obviously, it also employs a number of Darke County folks. The link below contains an article on the current GM project that they are a part of and refers to them by name using a picture of their production floor.  You may better know the company by the name PCI (Productive Concepts, Inc).  PCI was developed by Union City native Rob Lykins.  Rob sold PCI to IMPCO in 2010. He remains on in sales. 

IMPCO Automotive is the Tier-One supplier for integrating the CNG bi-fuel delivery and storage system into the pickups alongside the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana CNG-dedicated cargo vans at IMPCO Automotive’s facility in Union City, Ind. 

General Motors Co. plans to start selling a compressed natural gas bi-fuel commercial pickup truck as early as October 2012. 

According to the Detroit-based automaker, the addition of a bi-fuel CNG pickup -- planned for the last quarter of 2012 -- will help satisfy a broader range of needs for commercial customers looking for a one-stop alternative fuel vehicle from the factory. 

“Customers want a choice when it comes to fuel because it helps them manage their business costs,” said Brian Small, general manager, GM Fleet and Commercial Operations. “We listened and we are going to move fast to bring a bi-fuel CNG product to market to meet our customer’s needs.” 

The bi-fuel commercial trucks will be covered by GM’s three-year, 36,000-mile new vehicle limited warranty and five-year, 100,000-mile limited powertrain warranty and vehicle emissions warranty, meeting all Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resources Board (CARB) emission certification requirements. 

The discussion of natural gas as a mainstream alternative fuel for vehicles has become a major discussion in the automotive industry, especially with the Obama administration’s new fuel economy standards. 

In June, Micky Bly, the GM executive in charge of electric vehicles, told reporters after a Detroit Economic Club event that GM CEO Dan Akerson “has made it pretty transparent this is an area we need to get back into in the North American environment.” 

Natural gas is cheaper and burns much cleaner than oil, and it’s widely available in the United States. But as critics point out, natural gas drilling often involves “fracking,” a controversial technique that uses water, sand and toxic chemicals to break up shale and release the gas. 

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