Italy: Incentives for Autogas Conversions
1,8 million euros is the total amount of funds allocated by the Environment Ministry to encourage the promotion of alternative fuels. This means that financial incentives will be available to convert a number of vehicles to LPG and methane. From March 22, interested car owners residing/with their registered office or operating in 674 municipalities that have joined the ICBI (Low Impact Fuel Initiative) can book incentives on Ecogas consortium’s website at www.ecogas.it.
The amount of the incentives varies from €500 to €750 per car converted to LPG. The funds are intended for three different types of conversions:
- Euro 2 and Euro 3 vehicles registered from 1997
- Bi-fuel vehicles, including M1 vehicles and N1 commercial vehicles for rental service (with or without driver) and commercial and craft activities; and N1 commercial vehicles for urban freight transport.
- Dual-fuel vehicles, combining diesel and LPG, with a focus on N1 light commercial below 3.5 tonnes, excluding those destined for freight transport activities for third parties.
Some of the vehicles benefiting from the incentives in this last category will be provided with portable emissions measurement devices (PEMS), the same used for new RDE test (Real Driving Emissions) to check the actual values for vehicle emissions in road tests. The goal is to allow the free circulation of dual fuel vehicles even when traffic is restricted in the context of air pollutant peaks.
The procedure to get the incentive is simple: the interested motorists must contact their municipality which must be a member of ICBI. The latter, after checking the availability of funds and obtained the booking code assigned to each action (which ensures the provision of the fund), will communicate to the recipient when he can install the LPG equipment on his/her vehicle.
