Sales of natural gas powered cars increase in Germany
Despite the general economic downturn – felt in Germany as much as anywhere else – sales in Germany of natural gas (CNG) powered cars increased by 14 percent this year. Specifically, the increase saw 6,561 more CNG vehicles sold this year so far, adding about 80,000 CNG vehicles to German roads. Most of these models belong to two home brands, Volkswagen and Opel. The top sellers were the VW Caddy (with 2,476 units), the Opel Zafira (839 units), the VW Passat (758 units) and the Volkswagen Touran (562 units). One of the reasons for the increase in sales is the lower costs of natural gas in Germany. it costs about half as much to run a car on CNG than on unleaded gasoline in Germay, and there are lower taxes and insurance costs to consider as well.
[Source: Auto News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mark Kiernan 4:57PM (9/30/2009)
In Italy natural gas costs half the price of diesel and almost a third the price of petrol. There are problems though as you loose boot space, and available stations to fill-up are not very frequent, it remains popular though.
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Dave B 10:50PM (9/30/2009)
It's a simple formula....
- Tax incentives for CNG vehicles.
- Lower taxes on CNG fuel, means CNG costs less than gasoline.
- CNG fuel available at most filling stations in Germany.
End result......more CNG vehicles on the road.
The US cannot do this until we build more CNG filling stations.....
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letstakeawalk 12:48AM (10/01/2009)
Wow, this post has been up for how long - and meme hasn't posted his picture of the exploded CNG Civic yet? He's getting slow... he posted it in the article on the fuel cell truck hours ago.
On the bright side, most people have confidence in the tanks which store CNG.
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Laurens 6:33AM (10/01/2009)
People will get killed because of leaking CNG tanks. Also because EV's will electrocute them. Or from leaking and burning petrol.
Most get killed by defying physics. You can jump from any building, the landing is the issue :-)
Mark Kiernan 6:39AM (10/01/2009)
More people die each year from falling off ladders than die from terrorism but we spend billions to try and defeat terrorism and not ladders. ;)