Owners of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in Italy are being encouraged to convert their vehicles to Compressed Natural Gas as part of a new round of incentives made available since March 22. Conducted under the auspices of Italy’s Ministry of Environment, ICBI 2016 (Iniziativa Carburanti a Basso Impatto), the scheme has EUR 1.8 million (USD 2.05m) to support CNG and LPG conversions by individuals and companies domiciled in the 674 participating boroughs.
Incentives to convert to CNG:
- EUR 650 (USD 740) for persons domiciled in participating municipalities of the ICBI Convention – for converting a Euro 2/Euro 3-compliant passenger car registered after 01/01/1997;
- EUR 1000 (USD 1140) for legal persons having their registered office in, or operating in, a municipality adhering to the ICBI Convention – for converting an owned or leased Euro 2 and above commercial vehicle weighing less than 3.5 tonnes registered after 01/01/1997. These vehicles may be converted to dedicated CNG or bi-fuel (CNG/diesel).
The incentive includes an EUR 150 discount granted by the conversion shop and the balance from the ICBI scheme. The installer must indicate the discount on the conversion service bill, otherwise the motorist will not be entitled to apply for the ICBI incentive.
Light commercial vehicles are defined as:
- Cars M1 / N1 commercial vehicles for the rental service (with or without driver)
- Cars M1 / N1 commercial vehicles for commercial and craft activities
- N1 commercial vehicles for urban freight
According to official estimates, the new batch of incentives should result in approx. 4500 converted vehicles appearing on Italian roads in 2016.
(Source: Ecogas)
