Sweden, Stockholm
Sweden’s appetite for alternative fuels shows no sign of abating, with demand for vehicles fuelled by both biomethane and E85 ethanol blends increasing at a rate which has created temporary fuel shortages. ENGVA Chairman and former Volvo Cars executive, Peter Boisen, says the City of Stockholm, which has a quarterly journal dedicated to ‘environmental vehicles’ (Miljöbilar), is reporting the success of policy initiatives in the city.
“The introduction at Stockholm Arlanda airport of a special priority lane for taxi cabs meeting the 'environmental vehicle' classification in practise has supported two cars – Saab 9-5 with a flex fuel engine and Volvo V70 with a bi-fuel gas engine,” Boisen says. “These cars already account for 25 % of all traffic at the airport (drivers save about one hour driving into the priority lane which, of course, means higher earnings).”
Boisen says Stockholm is now planning to introduce similar priority lanes also at the ferry terminals. The city is also to introduce congestion charges on a permanent basis following a successful trial earlier this year. A referendum held during the September elections supported the tax, with moneys collected to be used to support road infrastructure developments.
Meanwhile Fordonsgas Sverige AB – one of the four major regional Swedish distributors of compressed methane gas has issued a release saying total sales for October were 1million Nm3 – an increase of 25 % compared with October 2005.
The bulk of the increase comes from increased use of light duty vehicles supplied via public refuelling stations. Sales at the public stations increased by 44 % compared with October last year. Boisen says the obvious conclusion to draw is that the fleet of LD vehicles in the last 12 months has grown by not less than 44 %.
At the end of 2005 the total Swedish fleet of methane powered vehicles was just under 8000 units, by the end of 2006 it will end up at 11-12,000 units.
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