Alternative engines on the rise

Trucks with CNG and LNG engines are making gains across Europe and experiencing a veritable sales boom in 2021, particularly in Germany, France and Poland.

Especially among trucks, CNG and LNG propulsion are currently in high demand, as the figures from Acea show. Source: Scania

The association of the 16 largest manufacturers of cars, trucks, light commercial vehicles and buses in Europe, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, or Acea for short, has announced its sales figures broken down by engine type for 2021. In the case of trucks in particular, an increasing number of logistics companies and freight forwarders across Europe are relying on alternative fuels such as CNG and LNG or the more sustainable alternatives biogas and LBG.

10,300 of the new trucks were powered by alternative fuels in 2021, which was a whopping 40.7% more than in the previous year. Purely electric trucks were also able to make gains, but in 2021 they will only reach 1,582 units, an increase of 27.5%. The conventional diesel truck continues to be very popular among the trucks, with 306,598 units representing a reasonable increase of 11.9% compared to the previous year’s deliveries. Last year, the most important markets for trucks with a CNG or LNG engine were Germany (2,258 units, an increase of 37.5%), France (1,858 units and an increase of 20%) and Poland (1,596 units and an increase of 119.2%).

Estonia’s capital Tallinn is making massive CO₂ savings with its new fleet of 350 CNG buses. Source: Solaris/Cummins

Light commercial vehicles using alternative fuels also increased by 10.3% to a total of 21,530 units. However, unlike trucks, many of the former diesel models across Europe were also replaced by electric (69,416 units, an increase of 78%) or hybrid versions (31,200 units and an increase of 141.8%). Most of the new buses are still powered by diesel (68.8%). The remaining market shares of 10.1% for hybrid buses, 10.6% for purely electric buses and 10.5% for CNG and LNG buses are almost evenly distributed among the other engine types.

The figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association make it clear that, despite all the cries of doom, CNG and LNG engines are an exciting, readily available and popular alternative, especially in the field of heavy commercial vehicles. Thanks to biogas or liquefied biogas (LBG) in their tanks, these engines can be almost CO₂-neutral. (jas, 24 March 2022)

Online giant Amazon has ordered 1064 CNG-powered trucks from Iveco for the sustainable delivery of its parcels in Europe and is gradually putting them on the road. Source: Iveco/Amazon