The explosive growth of LNG passenger cars this year is a foregone conclusion

The Chinese government has recently introduced a series of policies concerning natural gas, and the policy points to a very important point, which is to increase the market share of natural gas vehicles.

The continuous rise in oil prices has led major oil-consuming countries to try to reduce their dependence on oil and actively seek alternative sources of gasoline and diesel. Under the dual drive of the government and the market, natural gas is gradually becoming the main fuel for medium and heavy vehicles.

Based on this, experts predict that the number of natural gas vehicles in China will exceed 1.5 million by 2015, which has the potential to become the world's largest and most promising natural gas vehicle market.

According to statistics from the China Automotive Technology and Research Center, natural gas vehicles have seen explosive growth from January to November this year. Among them, the performance of passenger cars is the most eye-catching, not only accounting for more than 70% of the share of natural gas commercial vehicles, but also the highest proportion in the market.

Natural gas buses can be said to be a new force in driving the growth of the passenger car market this year, especially the rise of LNG road buses.

According to Liu Heping, head of marketing and planning department of Suzhou Golden Dragon, from January to November this year, Suzhou Golden Dragon sold a total of 2,933 natural gas passenger vehicles, of which LNG road passenger cars accounted for 35%, an increase of 176%. He said that at present, under the pressure of economic and environmental protection, natural gas vehicles that have not been valued in the past have begun to heat up in the context of the full penetration of the West-East Gas Pipeline and the large-scale overseas oil and gas landing. The advantages of LNG over CNG and LPG passenger cars in terms of safety, environmental protection, and energy saving make them first popular in coastal areas. In particular, the LNG vehicle fuel has a large payload capacity and a long refueling distance. This has led to the rise of the LNG road passenger car under the dual drive of the market and the government.

Observers noted that in recent years, the most popular areas for LNG road passenger buses have been concentrated in economically developed regions such as the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. In these areas, it happens to be the location of the oil giant LNG project. The most typical case is Jiangsu. Jiangsu Province in the Yangtze River Delta, the "first major gas producer," has long proposed the slogan of "gasification of Jiangsu." Not only that, Jiangsu Province proposed to increase the target of natural gas consumption in 2015 from 20 billion cubic meters of the plan to 26 billion cubic meters.

Against this background, PetroChina used its LNG receiving station in Rudong Port, Jiangsu Province as a force expansion point. On July 9 last year, its subsidiary PetroChina Kunlun Energy Huagang Gas Group Co., Ltd. and four major passenger transportation groups in Jiangsu—Suzhou, Wuxi, and Changzhou. Signed a strategic agreement with four transportation companies in Nantong, using Huagang Gas Group's LNG receiving station in Rudong Port, Jiangsu Province, to use gas from a tank truck in advance, and to build a refueling station in each of Suzhou and Wuxi in the later period. It is 75% of the diesel price. This is by far China's largest LNG road passenger car promotion project.

As of the end of December 2011, 134 Hagrid LNG passenger vehicles put into use as alternative fuels amounted to 8.6292 million litres, saving fuel consumption costs 24,519 thousand yuan, and the average cost of fuel drops by 34.29%. (Natural gas unit price is 5.4 yuan/kg, diesel unit price is 7.29 yuan/liter), carbon monoxide is reduced by 97%, hydrocarbons are reduced by 70% to 80%, and nitrogen and hydrogen compounds are reduced by 30% to 40%. Obvious economic and environmental benefits have resulted in four companies in Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou, and will invest more than 1,500 LNG buses by 2014.

In fact, safety and the economic and environmental benefits are also the reasons that passenger transport companies are considering. In recent years, there have been many fatal traffic accidents on road passenger transport due to the burning of passenger cars.

Jiang Hao, deputy general manager of the Nantong Automobile Group's Feihe Express Passenger Branch, said: “The biggest feature of LNG vehicles is safety and environmental protection. LNG has a igniting point of 650 degrees, which is much higher than gasoline's 427 degrees and diesel's 260 degrees. It is even more difficult. It ignites. LNG is light in weight, and even if it leaks, it will quickly evaporate in the air."

It is for these reasons that Guangdong Zhaoqing Yueyun Motor Transport Co., Ltd. invested 15 Hagrid LNG passenger cars in March this year, becoming the first transportation company in Guangdong province to put LNG passenger cars into road passenger transport. Zheng He'an, chairman of Guangdong Yun, believes that the soaring oil prices, energy-saving emission reduction tasks, "to replace oil with oil" is gradually considered a trend.

At present, Guangdong Province is planning the construction of gas filling stations. According to the driving area of ​​LNG vehicles, gas stations are first built on highways, provincial highways, national highways, cities, and urban areas. Based on this, it was only possible for Guangdong Yun to try LNG road passenger transport. Only the smooth gas filling can guarantee the economy. It is estimated that the average purchase cost of LNG passenger cars is 80,000 yuan more than that of diesel passenger cars. The average annual fuel consumption cost for normal operation is 84,000 yuan per vehicle. The payback period for LNG vehicle investment increases is 11 months, which is far less than the same category. Diesel passenger cars, and the subsequent saving of fuel costs, is a net additional increase in the company's net income.

It is reported that by the end of 2011, the number of natural gas vehicles in China had exceeded 1 million, and there were more than 1,500 types of auto refueling stations. By the end of October 2012, the number of LNG vehicles in China had increased to 70,000, and there were nearly 500 LNG filling stations. China has become the fourth largest in the Asia Pacific and the sixth largest natural gas vehicle market in the world.