The Russian government subsidies now will cover 60% of individuals’ and small business’ expenses for switching vehicles from gasoline to NG fuel. That’s up from 30%.
The minister of Power Industry has offered to increase subsidies for switching vehicles belonging to individuals and small business two times – from 30% to 60%. Another 30% will be paid by Gazprom at the expenses of its marketing program. Therefore, vehicle owners should pay only 10% of the cost to switch.
The government will assign US$ 0.7 billion (50 billion Rubles) for development of the NG fuel industry during the period 2020-2024. This includes an annual assignment of 3.5 billion rubles for gas fuel stations and 0.7 billion rubles for fleet modification.
There are 484 gas stations in Russia (May 2020), 329 of them belong to Gazprom. In 2019, the fuel sales on gas stations increased 30%. Read The Article
PSR Analysis: Despite the economical benefits of switching fuels and the support of the program, its implementation since 2014 has been inefficient. The main problems with using this fuel are an insufficient number of gas stations in Russia, legislation issues and the fact that local OEMs offer very few NG fueled vehicles. PSR
Maxim Sakov is Market Consultant, Russia, for Power Systems Research
