Germany

The second biggest NGV country is Germany which, by now, has around 85,000 NG vehicles.

This number of NGVs was reached very quickly in only a few years. This development has been pushed by two main strategic policies from the German government: a rapid development of the public CNG filling station network, which already numbers more than 800 locations; and secondly, a commitment from the administration to keep reduced tax rates for the NG as a vehicle fuel up to 2018. This guarantees that NG as a vehicle fuel in Germany remains an economical option. In addition there are several cities giving local incentives for the purchase of NGVs, which have been very well accepted by e.g. driving schools, taxi companies and other professional users.

Mercedes currently offers one CNG passenger car model, VW three models and Opel two models.  BMW and Audi, on the other hand, do not yet offer any CNG cars. With reference to commercial vehicles, Germany has some 450 heavy duty CNG trucks and 1.300 buses, all of them working in urban services. There are also a number of light duty CNG commercial vehicles from Opel, VW and MB.