Italy

Italy, with a very long tradition concerning the use of CNG vehicles, is still the absolute European champion with more than 580,000 CNG vehicles by midyear 2009.

This high number is mainly composed of private cars and vans, which can be refuelled in any of the 630 public refuelling stations spread over the country.

The number of NGVs has reached this significant level over the last 30 years, as a result of a very active retrofit conversion industry and the ready availability of most of the popular Fiat small and medium-sized cars and their commercial ex-factory CNG versions.

But of course there is also a strong economic reason behind this growth: the savings in fuel costs per kilometre for a medium duty car running on NG is about 60% compared with an equivalent petrol engine and 33% compared with a diesel version. The availability of more new car models with ex-factory CNG options is pushing the growth of the NGV market share further. On the commercial vehicle side, Italy counts some 1,200 CNG trucks, mainly operating in garbage collection services, and 2,300 urban buses.