Andrea Landi, president of Landi Renzo USA, is a leader with a mission. Landi wants to make low-emission cars and small trucks the standard around the world, starting with the light- and medium-duty fleets of California.
“California is the reference in the auto sector for clean emissions. All the work we’re doing here to bring our natural gas expertise to lighter-duty vehicles will, we hope, work for markets around the world,” said Landi.
He believes the rest of the world is watching California, and his company’s engineers are focused on developing technologies to meet the state’s aggressive clean air goals.
Landi Renzo is a 60-year-old multinational alternative fuels company with operations in the U.S. and Italy. Its U.S. headquarters are in Torrance, where the company designs and manufactures many of its CNG fuel delivery and storage system products for light- and medium-duty vehicles. Landi Renzo offers more than 50 CARB- and EPA-certified systems for Ford, GM, and Isuzu trucks, including pickups, small-truck chassis, and box trucks used by city fleets, utilities, airport shuttles, and delivery companies.
In California, Landi said, the biggest sellers are the Ford F-250 and F-350 trucks, especially among gas utilities, and the F-59 chassis for delivery and box trucks.
“For this class of vehicles that are constantly on the road, NGVs are the best—the only—established alternative fuel,” he said.
Landi Renzo is dedicated to moving the natural gas industry forward, and has earned recognition for its efforts. During the 2016 ACT Expo in May, SoCalGas gave Landi Renzo its Clean Transportation Leadership Award for advancing natural gas as a vehicle fuel.
To further its mission, the company has established a state-of-the-art R&D center and a corporate university, which has partnered with the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Both Landi Renzo facilities are located in Italy.
In 2014 the company launched its $50 million R&D facility—“one of the most important technical centers for the study of fuel emissions,” according to Landi—to support research into lowering the emissions of natural gas, propane, hydrogen, and gasoline fuels. Landi Renzo and other European carmakers use its labs. Much of the R&D work done in this facility makes its way into Landi Renzo’s California manufacturing plant.
“We always try to come up with new components that will improve the performance of our systems, such as the new high-flow regulator that will launch next year,” said Landi. “It was 100 percent developed in our Italian labs.”
The corporate university is dedicated to what Landi calls “eco mobility.” It offers training and development to both Landi Renzo’s employees and outside organizations, and it publishes scientific articles on the company’s research into fuel emissions and alternative fuels.
Most recently, the university joined UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability Corporate Partners Program, which aims to encourage collaboration on sustainability issues. Other members include Boeing, Toyota, and SoCalGas.
Landi Renzo joined the Coalition to support advocacy for public policies that advance alternative vehicles and fuels. Landi hopes to gain additional funding for R&D as well as create incentives to bring more advanced natural gas technologies to light- and medium-duty vehicles.
“Going forward, there will be far more interest in cleaner emissions,” said Landi. “We will bring expertise in lighter-duty vehicles to the table.”