The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Clean Cities program has revised its Vehicle and Infrastructure Cash-Flow Evaluation (VICE) Model – a tool that is designed to help fleet managers evaluate the deployment of compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles and CNG refueling infrastructure.
Using spreadsheet inputs, the VICE Model estimates the financial and emissions benefits that fleets can expect by transitioning to CNG. Users input their fleet-specific data – such as the number of vehicles, vehicle types, fuel use and planned vehicle-acquisition schedules – and the tool then presents numerical and graphical presentations of return on investment, payback period and annual GHG savings.
To simplify the estimates for users, the model contains a number of default values for parameters such as vehicle prices, fuel prices, fuel taxes and maintenance costs. Fleets can replace the default values with their own data to obtain more customized results.
For details about the VICE Model, click here.
