What can I choose in the calculator?

The calculator lets you choose the share of natural gas vehicles in the total vehicle fleet in Switzerland in the selected year (2035 or 2050).

Natural Gas Vehicle (NGV)

image Par Kevin.B (Travail personnel), via Wikimedia Commons

Contents

IMPACT – What are the impacts of CNG vehicles?

In Switzerland, substituting standard gasoline / diesel vehicles by NGVs (compressed or liquefied natural gas – CNG or LNG) of comparable size will have the following impacts:

Energy system

image Increase final energy demand in case of LNG.

image Reduce total diesel / gasoline consumption.

image No increase of the share of renewable energy sources in the energy mix (unless biogas is used).

image Likely to increase energy security (through diversification).

Environment & Climate

image Reduce CO2 emissions by up to 25% per km (on a Well to Wheel basis). [1]

image Slightly reduce emissions of harmful pollutants.

image Slightly reduce noise of engines compared with diesel equivalent.

image Likely to have no impact on deposited waste.

Society & Economy

image Likely to have limited impact on the cost of the energy transition.

image Despite higher purchase cost, may reduce total cost forvehicles owners.

image Likely to have limited impacts on balance of payments.

image Reduces Confederation income from the tax on mineral oil under the current taxation system.

image Require fuelling and distribution infrastructure to be created

GLOBAL MARKET – What is the global market for NGVs?

The global natural gas vehicle stock (passenger cars only) reached over 16 million units in 2013[2] (equivalent to 2% of the global passenger car stock[3]). Between 2003 and 2012 the global stock of natural gas vehicles has increased by 21.6% per year.[4] The biggest fleets are those of Iran, Pakistan and Argentina (3.3, 2.6 and 2.4 million respectively) and the EU fleet reached 1.1 million passenger cars in 2012.[4]

DEFINITION / CONSTRAINTS

DEFINITION - What is an NGV?

A CNG vehicle runs on compressed natural gas or biogas. The gas is stored on board in high pressure tanks (200-250 bar). An alternative, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is sometimes favoured in trucks due to the increased energy density of liquefied gas.

NGVs can be refuelled at filling stations (where available) similar to gasoline and diesel vehicles.

CONSTRAINTS - What are the key barriers facing BEVs deployment?

• Requires natural gas infrastructure, although the dual fuel type can revert to diesel operation if gas is not available.

• Shorter range than standard diesel/gasoline vehicles because natural gas has a lower energy density and so is harder to fit onto vehicles (at 250 bar, the energy density of CNG is almost 4 times lower compared to gasoline).

• Potentially reduced load carrying capacity.

• Limited number of filling stations.

• Higher purchase price than equivalent gasoline/diesel vehicle due to lower scale economies.

• LNG cars, at least, are not allowed in some closed places (e.g. garages)

ASSUMPTIONS – What are the assumptions considered in the calculator?

You will find more information about the passenger transport model of the calculator here.

REFERENCES

[1] IEA 2010, The contribution of natural gas vehicles to sustainable transport.

[2] NGVA Europe 2013, Worldwide NGV statistics.

[3] OICA 2012, World vehicles in use.

[4] IANGV 2013, Natural gas vehicle statistics.

[5] Natural-gas.com.au.