TICO Manufacturing, a terminal tractor manufacturer, announced it has signed an agreement with Power Solutions International Inc. (PSI) to provide TICO with gasoline and alternative fuel engines.
"We are very excited to begin what we hope will be a long and successful business relationship with PSI,” said TICO Manufacturing general manager Frank Tubbert. “The customer will be able to choose the powertrain and emissions that best suits their needs and will be receiving the highest value in the yard tractor market today. I think we have hit a home run here.”
TICO terminal tractors are used at distribution centers, rail terminals and ports. The company said it was seeking to offer alternatives to the traditional diesel engine. “By entering this relationship, TICO and PSI are building a strong position in the marketplace to capture emerging opportunities with their family of gasoline, LPG, LNG and CNG engines,” the company said.
“The increasing costs and complexity associated with meeting diesel emissions helped the shift to offer gasoline and alternative fuel engines,” Tubbert added. “We also wanted, in large part, to offer the customer more choices and to focus on clean air as a major policy objective. In addition, gasoline and other alternative fuel engines are lighter, less expensive and less complex than traditional diesel engines. We have successful pilot programs going on all around the country, and will begin taking orders in late summer of this year, with deliveries expected to begin late fall.”
Under the agreement, PSI has designed and will integrate an entire family of customized gasoline and alternative fuel engines into TICO Pro-Spotter terminal tractors. PSI's 8.8-liter engine and Allison automatic transmission are designed and tested to meet any demand.