Despite Urgency, CNG Conversion Plan Moving at a Snail’s Pace

A nationwide plan to convert 1.4 million gasoline-powered public transportation and commercial vehicles to compressed natural gas hybrids, which was launched in 2019, is progressing at a very slow pace, despite its long-term financial and ecological benefits, the head of Alternative Fuels Union said.
“As per the scheme, at least 1 million vehicles should have been retrofitted by now, but the figure has not exceeded 200,000 so far,” Ali Mahmoudian was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
Even at this slow progress rate, the scheme has decreased gasoline use by 1.5 million liters per day and if the government wanted to import the same volume, it would have to spend $500 million on the strategic commodity per day, he added.
The official noted that if the project had been implemented as scheduled, it could have saved close to 12 million liters of gasoline per day, that is equal to the daily output of Tehran, Shiraz, Lavan, Tabriz and Kermanshah refineries.