The plan, which foresees about 3,000 LPG fuel stations and 1,000 CNG ones to the end of 2012, is proceeding at a steady pace toward the goal. Actually Fiat Professional has already monitored 3065 LPG points (+40 closed) and 908 CNG points (+8 closed) regularly active (data September 7, 2012).
In spite of this, a subtle and insightful enemy, the electric Lobby, which includes several devices in its team, works in the opposite direction… but now, everyone is convinced that you are talking about a moving operation of pollution from the exhaust piped of cars to the “smokestacks” of electricity producers; and not only!
Recent studies, easily finding on line, show how , for instance, in the developed countries the pollution level to produce electricity is higher than the same endothermic engines.
I rewrite some data:
- In Italy per every kWh of power production there are 405g of CO2 discharged into the air;
- From 51 to 87 g/KM of CO2, equal to 0.12-0.21 kWh, represents the pollution discharged by an electric car, so it’s a false ZERO pollution (AGCM where are you?);
- If the electric car consumes >0,32 kWh, the CO2 emission will be 130g/KM, more than a Euro5;
- With the coming of Euro6 there will be a decrease by 20% of most of the pollutants ;
- Among 56 nations taken into exams, in 10 the electric car is more pollutant than the traditional cars. Among these there are India, China and South Africa.
According to this, it is sad to note that from a political and industrial point of view, the LPG/CNG, the only and true contemporary alternative, has never had an adequate development in all nations which could afford them.
Referring to Italy, it is required from 3 to 5 years to complete the process of opening a fuel distributor and in addiction, currently, there is only the self-service CNG station; this is another tessera to figure out where are nested the problems about social and economic development of this nation.
Beyond the lack of homogeneity of the distribution of the service stations in the various regions, there is also the highway distribution which from the agropontino down is virtually absent… just there, where the economic situation is difficult and alternative fuels could significantly lower the cost both for the families and of those who do business.
The data for the last 7 months (+119% LPG, 44% CNG, source UNRAE) reveal that the demand exists and the customers are more and more, forcing the opening on Sunday, so, the estimated number of fuel stations, for 2012, becomes insufficient.
The only viable and immediate solution seems to be the connection to the CNG home network and / or the residents’ one but also the connection at the facilities such as hotel chains, shopping centers, the modal interchanges and organized parking as well, of course, than the increase in the number of self-service stations.
So now I wonder: “ but where are we going with this electric motor? At which price? Has it a sense?”
Design costs, environmental social and of industrial reconversion ones, training costs and financial expenses, just to mention the most immediately for a mobility of only urban nature, at least until 2020… and according to the editorial n. 683 by “Quattroruote” (an italian motor Magazine) the PSA Group has suspended the demand of electric cars from its supplier.
While Renault struggled to keep the launch plans that includes a whole power range by the end of 2012, having long since stopped the production of batteries.
So the alternative power sources represent now, not tomorrow and at zero cost, a benefit both for the urban mobility, for the supply chain in the traction world and for the health-social impacts.
If we want to go more deeply, it’s enough reading the USA report about motorization over the next 30 years, just published, or also the article in Science written by professor Fornasiero – Trieste University- who built a catalyst that, at the same industrial cost, bring the CNG pollutants down by 30 times… not to mention the candles replaced by an injection laser system which will optimize the combustion (Japanese research)…
Translated by Federica Izzo
