LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) has established itself as a good alternative for cleaner freight mobility, especially over long distances. This is evidenced by the growing registrations of natural gas-powered trucks, which continue to increase year on year. And this was corroborated during our presence at the last edition of TransLogistica Poland where we hosted an interview with Marek Loos, editor-in-chief of the renowned Polish magazine Transport Manager, with Jacek Nowakowski, Gas Business Development Manager at IVECO. In this way, our stand once again became a space for reflection on the sector’s commitment to sustainability.
Energy complementarity
During the interview, Nowakowski confirmed the role of gas in a scenario of full energy transition towards a more environmentally friendly model and in which other alternative energy options are converging. According to the IVECO executive, the outlook for energy in the short term is one of “complementarity”.
“Different energy sources are going to coexist depending on needs: electric vehicles for short distances, basically local transport, since their range is 570 km and the weight of the battery, 4.5 tons. But for long-distance transport, gas is the optimal solution”, he said.
Nowarkowski went a step further and said that the future is no longer CNG or LNG, but hydrogen and biomethane”. And he gave a scoop: in 2023 IVECO will launch its first hydrogen-powered truck.
A commitment to the present and the future
During the interview, mention was also made of the latest figures for natural gas reserves in Europe, published in October by the International Energy Agency (IEA), which have generated a lot of uncertainty in the sector. Thus, with prices at record highs and reserves scarce, there has even been talk in the market of a third gas war.
In this sense, Nowakowski predicted that the fear of a total energy crisis in Europe “is growing” and that it is possible that prices will continue to rise for a few months, but that this is “a temporary situation”. According to the executive, long-term forecasts indicate that “in April 2022 the price per kilo will drop by 50%”.
“In addition to ecology and economy, there are also the demands of companies that increasingly contract transport services, large companies that aim to reduce their carbon footprint”, said IVECO manager Jacek Nowakowski, as decisive factors in favour of natural gas powered lorries.
