Over 130,000 public transport cars to be converted to bi-fuel vehicles
A sum of 132,000 public transport vehicles will be converted to bifuel vehicles across the country, said an official with the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC).
Mohammad-hossein Baqeri, who serves as the director of NIORDC’S compressed natural gas (CNG) project, said on Sunday that the vehicles will become bi-fuel under a program for the substitution of CNG consumption for gasoline, which started in May 2020, Shana reported.
The program is aimed at converting over 1.46 million public vehicles into bi-fuel ones, the official said.
According to Baqeri, so far, over 306,000 vehicles have registered in this program, of which only 132,000 have met the required criteria to become bi-fuel.
Some 16,400 of the approved vehicles were introduced to designated centers and are currently in line to be converted, and 15,500 are also in line to be introduced to the said centers, the official said.
Baqeri further noted that six contractors were selected for converting the gasoline-powered vehicles, and, to this end, 279 centers were equipped across the country.
The official also announced the preparation for turning 200,000 vehicles active in car agencies and internet taxi platforms into bi-fuel cars.
Since the implementation of a program for rationing subsidized gasoline and increasing fuel prices in November 2019, CNG consumption has been rising in the country.
Iran’s CNG consumption, which stood at 19 million cubic meters (mcm) per day before the implementation of the fuel rationing scheme, has now reached 21 mcm.
There are currently 2,400 CNG stations across Iran that supply 22 percent of the country’s fuel basket.
The Iranian Oil Ministry considers CNG to be the national fuel; therefore, to increase the share of this fuel in the country’s energy basket, it was planned to turn public vehicles into bi-fuel cars, which can increase CNG consumption by 10 mcm per day.