The Landscape for CNG as an Alternative Fuel

Despite an increased focus on alternative road fuels across Europe, in all but one or two countries, the number of vehicles fuelled by compressed natural gas (CNG) is minimal. Industry stakeholders need to be aware of the varying popularity of CNG in member states and of the reasons for it.



Report Highlights
In Europe, NGVs have made the biggest impact in Italy, with the country's 410,000 NGVs making up over 1% of the car parc. The key driver of the uptake of CNG vehicles in Italy has been grants for the purchase of NGVs and conversions kits. The use of NGVs in Europe is dwarfed by markets such as Argentina, Brazil and Pakistan. The use of CNG in Brazil and Argentina is aided by favourable price differential between gasoline and CNG and a strong distribution infrastructure. Across Europe CNG has been eclipsed by other alternative road fuels. Autogas has proven to be more popular for technical reasons, whilst biofuels have benefited from governmental support and superior adaptability to gasoline and diesel engines


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Overview 1
Catalyst 1
Summary 1
Sources 1
Analysis 2
The number of CNG vehicles and filling stations is limited 2
The penetration of natural gas vehicles (NGVs) into the European car parc is minimal 2
Outside of Germany and Italy CNG is not readily available 3
The number of NGVs and CNG filling stations in Italy dropped in 2005 5
There is a strong correlation between automotive and political support for CNG and NGV penetration into national car parcs 5
Europe does not have the characteristics of markets where CNG has been successful 7
Around 74% of the world's NGVs are located in four countries 7
Price differentials and a strong distribution infrastructure have made CNG popular in Brazil and Argentina 7
Significant gas reserves and legal obligations have led to high usage of CNG vehicles in Pakistan and India 8
A number of factors have made other alternative fuels more popular than CNG 10
Autogas has proven more popular than CNG for technical reasons 10
Autogas is more readily available at European filling stations than CNG 11
Biofuels have rapidly increased their share of Europe's road fuel market 13
European governments have favored biofuels as an alternative fuel 13
Biofuels are better supported by the automotive industry than CNG 14
Biofuels are more widely available than CNG 15
APPENDIX 17
Definitions 17
Sources 17
Further reading 17
Ask the analyst 17
Datamonitor consulting 17
Disclaimer 17

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Figure 1: NGVs have made the most progress in Italy 3
Figure 2: Germany has the most CNG filling stations in Europe 4
Figure 3: There are over 400,000 registered NGVs in Italy 5
Figure 4: Argentina accounts for almost a quarter of the world's 6.1 million NGVs 7
Figure 5: NGVs account for almost 20% of Argentina's car parc 8
Figure 6: Pakistan accounts for a fifth of the world's NGVs 9
Figure 7: Over 3% of vehicles in the Netherlands run on autogas 11
Figure 8: Across Europe there are more autogas sites than CNG sites 12
Figure 9: TypeFigTitleHere 13
Figure 10: 800 filling stations in Sweden sell bioethanol 15
Figure 11: 500 filling stations in the UK retail biodiesel 16

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