In keeping with Blue Corridor’s efforts to expand the natural gas vehicle (NGV) fueling station network in Europe, Gazprom Germania GmbH recently revealed plans to open four new natural gas filling stations in Germany. This is a significant step toward achieving Germany’s goal to have more than 1 million natural gas-fueled cars on the road by 2020.

“Natural gas as a motor fuel has huge potential to make mobility more efficient, more environmentally friendly, more cost-efficient, and safer both today and in the future,” said Vyacheslav Krupenkov, senior managing director of Gazprom Germania. “That’s why we’re continuing to invest in expanding our network of natural gas filling stations.”

Gazprom Germania already has six NGV filling stations operating around Germany, and its new stations in Berlin, Potsdam, Leipzig and Öhringen will go into service by the end of 2013, followed by five more in 2014. As Mirco Hillmann, spokesperson Gazprom Germania wrote for Blue Corridor last fall, “Gazprom Germania recognizes that driving with compressed natural gas (CNG) benefits both consumers and the environment, delivering substantial savings in both costs and harmful emissions.”

Erdgas Mobil, an alliance between leading energy supply companies in Germany that aims to improve natural gas and biogas’ position in the marketplace, will build the four new filling stations in the coming year. A spokesperson for the company, which also constructed Gazprom Germania’s other six filling stations in 2012, told Blue Corridor during its most recent rally that “natural gas could be the leading energy source” of the future. Dr. Gerhard Holtmeier, chairman of Erdgas Mobil’s supervisory board, said at a rally stop in Germany  that “the performance of natural gas has been surprisingly well. We had 16 percent growth last year; natural gas has been the most attractive energy source amongst the alternative energies.” 

Gazprom Germania also plans to open another seven natural gas filling stations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, in collaboration with its subsidiary VEMEX.

 
For more insights from Gazprom Germania’s head of NGV business development David Graebe and other experts on Germany’s growing NGV sector, check out videos from the Blue Corridor 2012 Natural Gas Vehicle Rally’s tour through Europe:

• Gazprom Germania’s David Graebe discusses benefits of natural gas
• Germany is one of the most promising markets for Compressed Natural Gas cars