German giant Volkswagen charters LNG-fueled car carriers

The Volkswagen Group, one of the world’s largest car manufacturers, on Wednesday, said that from 2019 onwards it will use two LNG-fueled vessels chartered from Siem Car Carriers to transport vehicles between Europe and North America. 

Wolfram Thomas, head of group production said that the use of LNG-fueled roll on/roll off car carriers on other routes is currently also under consideration.

The two LNG-powered vessels, with a length of about 200 meters and a width of about 36 meters, have a capacity of about 4,500 vehicles, Volkswagen said in its statement.

The car carriers, equipped with a 3,000-cbm LNG tank installed below deck, will have a comparable capacity to conventional transatlantic freighters. Both ships will feature a 12,600 kW engine developed by MAN Diesel & Turbo.

Head of Volkswagen Group logistics, Thomas Zernechel noted that “The possibility of changing other vehicle transport vessels chartered by Volkswagen over to LNG operation will depend on the availability of the necessary infrastructure.”

The two LNG-fueled freighters will replace two of the nine vessels using heavy fuel oil from 2019 onwards, Volkswagen said, adding that these vessels will be used exclusively for its round trip scheme across the North Atlantic serving the markets of Canada, the USA, Mexico and Europe.

The Volkswagen Group was embroiled in an “emissions scandal” at the end of last year when the United States Environmental Protection Agency filed a complaint, alleging that approximately 500,000 vehicles containing 2.0 liter diesel engines were equipped with “defeat devices”.  The number of vehicles with the device worldwide grew to 11 million.

Volkswagen Group has since undertaken internal investigations and, according to EPA, agreed to spend up to US$14.7 billion to settle the allegations in the United States.

LNG World News Staff