Iranian automakers are to double the production of dual-fuel vehicles in order to reduce the country's heavy dependence on gasoline, according to Press TV.
Some 600,000 hybrid cars are to be manufactured by the end of the (Iranian calendar) year ending March 20, 2009, said Senior Industry Ministry Official Mohsen Salehinia. Iranian companies produced over 314,000 hybrids that utilize both gasoline and compressed natural gas (CNG) during the previous Iranian year which ended March 20, 2008. These (600,000 hybrid) vehicles will make up 33 percent of the country's total auto production, Salehinia added. The rise in hybrid car production has been encouraged by the government to reduce gas consumption in the world's fourth-largest oil producer. Iran lacks adequate refining facilities to produce gasoline and allocates huge sums to import gas, which burdens state coffers. The country introduced a gasoline-rationing program in June 2007. Sixty percent of passenger cars produced this year will use natural gas as fuel or will be dual-fuel, and the remaining 40 percent will run on regular gasoline, read a cabinet statement released in June 2008.
No comments:
Post a Comment