Iran's roads to go eco-friendly

Iran is set to start producing hybrid cars from late July in a bid to cut down on fuel consumption in the country, according to a report by Iran's Mehr News Agency (MNA).

Iran Khodro Company (IKCO) will begin operations of the eco-friendly cars in the central province of Qazvin next year, the carmaker's managing director said on Sunday.

The move is set to meet the country's demands for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) tanks - a substitute for petrol or diesel fuel and considered to be an environmentally 'clean' alternative - for Iran's vehicles.

Carmaker IKCO has so far purchased 70,000 fuel tanks from a domestic company and has inked a deal for a further 300,000, Manuchehr Manteqi told MNA.

Demand for CNG tanks for vehicles is commonly in response to high fuel prices and environmental concerns.

Iran's top leaders enforced a new fuel rationing plan last week in a bid to reduce the billions of dollars the country spends each year to import fuel that is then sold to Iranian drivers at far less than cost, to keep prices low.

CNG has not yet become widely available because it takes a lot more space to store than gasoline, even though it is a compressed gas rather than a liquid.

However Argentina and Brazil are the two countries with the largest fleets of CNG vehicles. The fuel has also grown into one of the major sources used in car engines in Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, with New Delhi's Transport Corporation operating the world's largest fleet of CNG buses.

Iran's move also echoes steps being taken across the Gulf region to introduce eco-friendly cars that run on a combination of petrol and electricity.

Dubai government officials in May announced that all taxis operating in the emirate must be replaced over time with the environmentally friendly cars, but did not set a deadline for the replacement programme.

The gas electric hybrid model draws its power from an electric motor and gas-power transmission, producing less carbon dioxide and less nitrates in the environment.

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