Corporate

The price of petrol is increasing and, despite recent price reductions, there is no end in sight. Those who do not want to spend more on fuel have a cost-effective and environmentally-minded alternative available: natural gas. There are more the 7.2 million natural gas powered cars currently in use around the world, and an increasing number of Austrians are switching to this alternative. By the end of 2008, the 3,000 mark should have been reached.

Wien Energie is encouraging this development for the reason that natural gas powered cars burn their fuel with hardly any residue and emit fewer pollutants than petrol or diesel cars. Compared to conventional cars, they produce up to 85% fewer nitrous oxides, 25% less carbon dioxide and 90% fewer particles. In addition to this, the amount of fine particle dust produced is reduced to negligible levels. Thus, vehicles powered by natural gas do not only help to protect the environment, but also to improve air quality.

Similarly, natural gas powered cars offer the same levels of convenience as their petrol and diesel counterparts, being fitted with the latest technological features and available in series. What’s more, crash tests have shown that the specially designed gas tanks are particularly stable and therefore safe components of the car.

In addition to all this, natural gas powered vehicles incur fewer costs. This is not only due to the fact that this fuel is considerably less expensive than petrol or diesel, but also that the vehicles are more efficient.

Around 120 filling stations offer natural gas

The natural gas network in Austria is constantly being expanded. In order to forge ahead with improving the infrastructure in the Greater Vienna metropolitan area, Wien Energie founded the subsidiary Wien Energie Erdgas Mobil. The current situation in Austria is that, aside from numerous regular filling stations, there are around 120 publicly available natural gas filling stations, 23 of which are in the Greater Vienna metropolitan area (a current list is available at www.wienenergie.at). Moreover, the filling stations are supplied with gas in an environmentally sensitive way, as it is transported via the existing gas network to filling stations.

Wien Energie has Austria’s largest fleet of natural gas vehicles

Wien Energie currently operates the largest fleet of natural gas vehicles in Austria. The number of cars in the fleet will be increased from the current level of 250 vehicles to around 430 by 2010.

Over the past several years, Wien Energie has invested EUR 8m in natural gas powered cars and the corresponding filling stations. A further EUR 3m have been budgeted for investment in the period to 2010. Supported by a range of marketing and information activities, the target is to have up to 50,000 natural gas powered cars on Austria’s roads by 2010.