Greek NGV Fleet on the Rise

Greek CNG Fleet Numbers 750 Units

The Greek fleet of methane-powered vehicles numbers some 750 units as of January 2013. The national NGV fleet includes 600 public transportation buses and 102 municipality garbage collection vehicles.

Compressed natural gas (CNG) as a fuel for vehicles was introduced in Greece in the early 2000s and right now, current sales of CNG amount to some 16 million Nm3 per year.

Today, four CNG filling stations are operating in the country, two of them public and one mixed private/public. Two stations are owned by NGVA Europe member DEPA and are located in the Attica region; one in Anthousa the other in Ano Liosia. These stations are mainly used to refuell urban buses and municipal garabage trucks. Their capacity reaches 5,000 cubic meters/hour (Nm3/h) each, ranking them among the largest in Europe. Since September 2010, the Anthousa station provides natural gas also to Medium-Duty Vehicles (MDVs) and Light-Duty Vehicles (LDVs) of Dual-Fuel or Bi-Fuel technology.

In addition, the installation of twelve public natural gas (NG) filling stations is currently planned in four major cities: Athens, Thessaloniki, Larissa and Volos. These four cities account for over 65% of all vehicles circulating in the country. Two licenses have been issued at end of 2012 for the first two CNG stations, one in Athens and one in Thessaloniki. The two stations are expected to start operating within the weeks to come and the objective is to have all stations in place and operating by the end of 2013.

Legislative support & incentives

No major public incentives for the use of NG in transportation are available at the moment.

DEPA SA is offering the following incentives for taxis and vans used for logistic puropses in cities as part of its promotional activities:

  • High subsidies for a small number of NGVs (40-50% of the vehicle acquisition price will be subsidised) called “CNG Ambassador Scheme”,
  • long term promotional programs covering the incremental costs between a gasoline vehicle and the NGV version of the same vehicle model,
  • dedicated programs for companies that have city logistic fleets and want to convert vehicles to CNG dual fuel

Since 3 September 2012, private cars and commercial vehicles under 2.2 tons manufactured according to the Euro 5 norm – either conventional or hybrid – that emit less CO2 than 140 g/km are authorised to move in the green ring of the center of Athens. According to this legislation, hybrid vehicles and NGVs manufactured according to Euro 4 standards are also authorised to move in the same green ring.

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Source: NGVA Europe, July 19, 2013