October 13 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's government said it has adopted a strategy on the use of alternative fuels in the transport sector under which the registration of new diesel and petrol cars will not be permitted after 2030.
The strategy sets out that the total carbon footprint of a car must be less than 50 g of CO2 per kilometre, a requirement which currently only electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids meet, it said in a statement following a government session on Thursday.
Furthermore, five years earlier, from 2025, Slovenians will register only cars with a carbon footprint of under 100 g CO2 per km.
"This will promote the spread of electrically powered vehicles, hybrid vehicles and fossil fuel vehicles, which have a significantly less negative impact on the environment than the vehicles we use today," the government said.
The strategy also foresees the construction of infrastructure for vehicles running on alternative fuels, including the expansion of the current network of charging stations from 227 to 1,200 by 2020, 7,000 by 2025 and 22,300 by 2030.
In order to achieve its emission targets, the government expects some 17% of Slovenia's passenger fleet, or 200,000 cars, to be either electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids by 2030. It also predicts that 12% of vans and small lorries will be electric by 2030, as well as that a third of all buses will use natural gas and 12% of heavy lorries will use liquefied petroleum gas.
In addition, the country plans to build by 2025 in the port of Koper infrastructure to allow all ships access to battery charges and natural gas.
According to Slovenia's statistic agency, at the end of 2016, almost 1,470,000 road vehicles were registered in the country, up 2% on the year, of which 1,097,000 were passenger cars.
A total of 53% of the registered passenger cars were using petrol, 46% diesel and 1% liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The number of passenger cars on hybrid drive increased by 40% and those on electric drive by 59%.