The Alternative Fuel Vehicle Institute announced that it will no longer produce and host its Alternative Fuels & Vehicles National Conference + Expo (AF&V), a four-day annual conference that was the largest gathering of the alternative fuels and advanced technologies industry in the United States with more than 1,000 attendees each year.

Formerly called the annual Clean Cities Conference and Exposition, AFVi took over the conference five years ago from the U.S. Department of Energy. The Conference was held consecutively for 16 years. It's final conference was held this past year in Las Vegas, during which it recognized Napa Valley, Calif., Unified Transportation Director Ralph Knight with a "Magic School Bus" award for converting the diesel school bus fleet to electric.

“Over the past 20 years, we’ve seen alternative fuels go from the obscure to the mainstream,” said Annalloyd Thomason, Executive Director. “Federal Recovery Act funding puts the alternative fuels and vehicles industries in extremely good positions for the future. While the Conference once served as a tool to foster the further development of the industry, we see that role shrinking…and that’s a good thing.”

Thomason added that she sees alternative fuels not being an “alternative” for much longer. With strict federal emission and fuel economy mandates coming into effect soon, fleets will increasingly use alternative fuels and vehicles to meet the new standards.

“It’s a bittersweet ending,” she said. “We so appreciate the support of our sponsors and exhibitors throughout the years, and we’ll continue to work with them in the future on other projects.” Thomason doesn’t rule out resurrecting the Conference in the future. “If the marketplace demonstrates a need, we’ll re-evaluate it at that time.”

AFVi will continue its efforts to develop the alternative fuels market and continue to brand itself as “The Answer Place for Fleets” through market development and consulting, the organization’s core business. AFVi recently garnered media and industry attention from two fleet surveys conducted in the past year. Both surveys show that adopting alternative fuel vehicles is a top strategy for greening fleets, and that 50 percent of fleets have plans to do so in the next three years.