The number of natural gas vehicles in Finland broke the 10,000 mark last year. This growth illustrates how well natural gas vehicles meet the vehicle needs of consumers and enterprises alike as an inexpensive and low-emission alternative. An increasing number of natural gas heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) were also taken into use during 2019.
The popularity of natural gas vehicles is continuing its growth in Finland. According to the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, the number of natural gas car and van registrations during 2019 exceeded 4,000, which is almost twice the number seen in 2018. Of these, new registrations amounted to around 2,200. The most popular makes among the first registrations were SKODA (1,111), SEAT (595) and Volkswagen (332). There were more natural gas cars than fully electric cars registered last year.
“The first registrations of new cars in Finland dropped by 5.2% year on year, but at the same time the registrations of gas cars increased by 84%. This shows that a segment of consumers and enterprises has discovered gas-fuelled vehicles. Awareness of this inexpensive and environmentally friendly vehicle alternative has also increased,” says Heidi Kuoppala, Business Manager, Traffic, Gasum. “The Finnish Government has set the target of introducing 50,000 gas vehicles on Finland’s roads by 2030. At the moment we’re ahead of this ambitious target and, with the right steering instruments put in place, the target can be reached considerably ahead of schedule, which would mean significant cuts in transport emissions.”
Steps towards zero emissions were also taken in logistics: a larger number of natural gas traction units and other HDVs were registered in 2019 than in previous years. According to Scania statistics, almost 4% of the HDVs sold by the company were powered by natural gas. In addition, according to the Transport Barometer of Finnish Transport and Logistics SKAL, 26% of transport enterprises are interested in choosing environmentally friendly natural gas and biogas.
Gasum continued to expand its gas filling station network in Finland and Sweden during 2019. The growing filling station network also serving heavy-duty transport enabled the introduction of more and more natural gas-powered traction units on the roads. Gasum will continue to respond to the growing demand for natural gas by expanding its filling station network even further. Last year also saw the expansion of the station network to entirely new regions in Oulu and Seinäjoki, Finland. Gasum currently has 34 stations in Finland and eight stations in Sweden for various vehicle categories.
Source: Gasum