Many fleet managers are looking at alternative fuels and advanced vehicle technologies to reduce their environmental footprint and save money. The AFLEET Tool, and its newly launched web-based version, AFLEET Online, developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, can help fleets optimize their purchasing decisions to do exactly that.

AFLEET (Alternative Fuel Life-Cycle Environmental and Economic Transportation) is a free, publicly available spreadsheet-based tool that calculates and compares the costs and environmental benefits of a broad range of alternative fuels and vehicle technologies. It also accommodates all vehicle types, from passenger cars and pickup trucks to buses and freight trucks.

The new AFLEET Online is a web-based option for calculating emissions of 18 fuels/vehicle technologies. It also provides a simple payback calculator that compares the purchase and annual operating costs of a new alternative fuel and advanced vehicle to its conventional counterpart.

AFLEET is based on Argonne’s flagship life-cycle analysis tool, the Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions and Energy use in Transportation (GREET) model. Developed by the DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Integration program, the AFLEET tool has more than 8,000 users, ranging from those in charge of fleet purchases to those in industry, academia, government, and nonprofits, such as Clean Cities coalitions.

AFLEET and AFLEET Online are sponsored by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office.