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Energy

CNG-Hybrid Vehicles to Bridge Gasoline Supply-Demand Gap

In an effort to narrow down the growing gap between gasoline supply and demand, the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company and Iran’s major auto manufacturers Iran Khodro Company (IKCO) and SAIPA are pooling minds to raise the production of gas-powered cars, the head of the R&D Department in the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company said.

“As per contracts signed between the domestic automakers and NIORDC in 2021, the production of CNG-hybrid cars has started but it is not progressing fast enough,” Reza Kazemnejad was also quoted as saying by ILNA.

Based on the agreement, SAIPA is obliged to manufacture 100,000 gas-powered cars, of which less than 25,000 have so far been delivered to NIORDC, he added.

According to the official, IKCO has started the production of 45,000 CNG-hybrid taxis and pickup trucks for reducing gasoline consumption and curb air pollution.

“Close to 23 million cubic meters of CNG are used in Iran per day, which can rise to 35 mcm/d if more CNG-hybrid cars are produced.

Commenting on high consumption of gasoline and diesel, he noted that transportation fleet, including buses, passenger vans, taxis and private cars, account for a massive 60% of total fuel use in Iran.

Kazemnejad said NIORDC produces around 110 million liters and 120 million liters of gasoline and diesel respectively per day.

The Oil Ministry has been collaborating with knowledge-based companies in the past couple of years to indigenize and upgrade the technologies used in the production of CNG-powered vehicles, especially CNG tanks.

 

Conversion Scheme

Besides supporting the production of CNG-hybrid vehicles, NIORDC is implementing a scheme to convert 1.4 million gasoline-powered vehicles into hybrids, with the priority given to public transportation and small commercial vehicles.

Based on data released by the company, 305 certified conversion centers are operating throughout the country and a total of 200,289 vehicles have been converted into compressed natural gas hybrids since the initiative was launched in the spring of 2020. 

The second phase, launched in early March 2021, envisages the conversion of private passenger vehicles used for offering ride-hailing services.

Following the government's decision to raise fuel prices on Nov. 15, 2019, the consumption of compressed gas has been increasing.

According to Iran CNG Association, close to 23 mcm of CNG are supplied to 2,650 CNG filling stations in Iran per day.

The association announced that out of the 19 million vehicles in Iran, over 5 million have CNG-hybrid engines, accounting for 20% of overall CNG consumption. 

Globally, Iran is the fifth biggest CNG consumer. 

According to Ali Ziyar, deputy director of NIORDC, domestic automakers have long been producing energy-inefficient gas guzzlers whose mileage is three times lower than the global norm [4 liters/100 km], and interestingly nobody dares to stop them.

People might play a minor role in wasting the valuable energy resources, but car factories have a more prominent function as they design and manufacture low-quality engines and people have no choice but to purchase those clunkers, he added.

 

Global Norms

The official said NIORDC and other related bodies are obliged to encourage people to consume less, but a majority of individuals are deprived of quality cars whose mileage does not comply with global norms.

It is regrettable that automakers have shown utter negligence in producing energy-efficient vehicles and they really have no concerns about millions of liters of fuel squandered nationwide, which resource can generate billions of dollars in revenues, if exported.

“There is no quick fix for the looming fuel shortages because building new refineries or manufacturing fuel-efficient cars are either infeasible or long-term,” Nasser Ashouri, secretary-general of the Association of Iranian Refining Companies, said.

“All refineries in Iran are producing at full capacity [110 million liters of gasoline per day] and the output cannot rise further. To meet rapidly growing demand, new facilities must be built,” he added.

The construction of Shahid Soleimani Petro-Refining Plant in Bandar Abbas and Mokran Refinery in Jask Port, both in Hormozgan Province, has started, but estimates show that the projects will come on stream in 2025.

According to the official, if and when the new plants come on stream after three years, they can increase NIOC’s refining capacity by 600,000 barrels per day, but the state-run National Iranian Oil Company should have initiated the plan much earlier, as raising the production level overnight is next to impossible.

Ashouri stressed that the association has long called for rewriting rules to prevent state and private refineries from going bankrupt while providing special loans to refiners to help improve quality.