How to make an alternative fuels strategy become a success
26 JUNE 2019
HAVI’s alternative fuels partnership with Scania is making excellent progress in Germany. HAVI will soon operate one of the country’s largest liquefied gas vehicle fleets just six months after introducing its first gas-powered vehicles.
HAVI Germany recently switched nine more delivery trucks to gas and is on track to operate 35 liquefied gas vehicles from its Duisburg distribution centre by the end of June. To speed up the low-carbon journey, HAVI is also increasing its own network of filling stations for liquefied gas.
Lower emissions and quieter vehicles
“The success of our partnership with Scania is reinforcing our position as a recognised sustainability leader in the logistics sector,” according to HAVI. This partnership aims to transfer up to 70 percent of HAVI’s vehicle fleet to alternative fuels by 2021 in several of the European countries where HAVI operates.
In addition to lower emissions, the gas-powered trucks are also much quieter.
Delivering these benefits is becoming increasingly urgent as the threat of low-emission zones, congestion charges and diesel bans in European towns and cities grows. “For our customers, sustainable supply chains with the lowest possible emissions are becoming more and more important. With our liquified gas fleet, we are contributing towards making our customers’ supply chains and products more sustainable,” says Roland Schmidt, Managing Director, HAVI Logistics, Germany.
Growing demand for alternative fuels
The demand for sustainable transport solution is growing in the German market. “It is therefore necessary that the infrastructure of filling stations for gas also grows to pave the way for more sustainable transport system,” says Stefan Ziegert, Product Manager, Sustainable Transport Solutions, Scania Deutschland Österreich. “When the production of renewable biogas increases, it can be blended into natural gas, which is more common today. Biogas offers reduction of CO2 emissions of about 90 percent.”
“Opening our own stations has been essential to making our alternative fuels strategy a success”
Germany’s network of filling stations for liquified gas is still developing slowly. In November 2018, HAVI therefore opened the fourth filling station for liquified gas in Germany and another station is scheduled to open at the start of 2020. “Opening our own stations has been essential to making our alternative fuels strategy a success,” explains Torsten Oldhues, Managing Director, Operations, HAVI.
