Natural gas vehicles (NGV) - cars that burn natural gas as the primary fuel - should receive subsidized fuel because of their "significant contribution to cutting fuel consumption," the minister of industry mine and trade, Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, said on the sidelines of an Automotive Policymaking Council meeting on Thursday, ILNA reported.
Last month, the government said subsidized gasoline will no longer be sold to private cars at the subsidized price of 70,000 rials, and regular gasoline will be offered at a single price, 10,000 rials (30 cents) a liter without quotas nationwide. However, Nematzadeh said NGVs should be the only group of vehicles that should be seen eligible for fuel subsidies.
He called for consigning the several hundred thousand dilapidated cars and gas guzzlers plying the congested streets across the country to the scrap yard, including 140,000 taxis, 62,000 private vehicles and 17,000 buses and minibuses, as part of measures to help curb air pollution and reduce fuel consumption.
According to the Department of Environment (DoE), more than 30% of public transport vehicles are outdated and need replacement. In addition, automobile use in Iran has doubled in the past eight years, and one million gas-guzzlers on the road are more than 20 years old.
This is while close to 162,000 passenger vehicles have been produced in the first two months of the present Iranian year (March 21- May 21), a 17.5% rise compared to the same period last year.
Nematzadeh also said carmakers that implement verifiable plans to curb fuel consumption will be eligible for funds from the National Development Fund of Iran.
