BioNGV Wants to Keep a Major Place in the Energy Mix

(Le Journal du Poids Lourd (Google translation)) The 2025 BioNGV Panorama has just been unveiled by France Mobilité Biogaz. It highlights a sector that continues to grow, but is hoping for better regulatory and fiscal conditions to take its place in the energy mix.

France Mobilité Biogaz published its annual BioNGV Panorama on Thursday, June 19, 2025. This is an opportunity to highlight the importance of this energy in decarbonizing heavy-duty transport. We learned in particular that in 2024, NGV consumption (both CNG and LNG) by heavy-duty vehicles crossed the 5 TWh mark. 43% of this volume is bioNGV, or 2.2 TWh, +30% compared to 2022. The sector is aiming for a 50% share this year, and 100% by 2033.

Registrations and supplies

In terms of registrations, 3,850 gas vehicles were put on the road last year (+13.4%). In total, the French fleet has 40,600, including 25,531 heavy vehicles (64.9%). In terms of supply, the sector has already largely exceeded the target of 330 stations by 2028 set by the 2020-2028 Multi-Year Energy Program. It reached 380 refueling points open to the public in France by the end of 2024, and as many private stations.

Now, what place does gas have in the energy mix? " It's a solution favored by transport players. The sector continues to grow, even if progress is slowed by strong regulatory constraints that favor electric vehicles. We are not anti-electric, but anti-all-electric ," emphasizes Régis Gaignault , Secretary General of France Mobilité Biogaz.

Irric must play in favor of bioNGV

The bioNGV sector is therefore calling for technological neutrality, which should be made possible by the reform of the Tiruert, now called Iricc (Incentive to reduce the carbon intensity of fuels) . A measure " expected by the entire sector ." France Mobilité Biogaz explains: " This regulatory system requires distributors to increase the share of low-carbon fuels in their sales and should ensure the competitiveness of bioNGV at the pump, thereby increasing its attractiveness and consumption ."

Philippe Prémat , head of Transports Prémat , says: " The unknowns surrounding gas pricing worry us a little. If there were a gap between gas and diesel, it would penalize us . Furthermore, subsidies linked to super-depreciation are capped at 300,000 euros over three years, without differentiation based on company size. With a fleet of 500 vehicles, we are quickly penalized. We would like more clarity and fiscal stability, because we believe in this energy: we have around fifty gas vehicles, and have just brought in 20. " For his part, Jérôme Douy , head of public market mobility relations at GRDF, assures that the TCO of a gas truck and a diesel truck remains similar over the total lifespan of the vehicle.

CO2 emissions divided by five

With an environmental advantage for bioNGV. The industry points out that it allows greenhouse gas emissions to be divided by five compared to a diesel vehicle, but also improves air quality: almost zero fine particle concentrations and significantly reduced nitrogen oxide emissions (up to -70% of NOx and up to -98% of NO2 avoided) compared to a diesel vehicle of the same generation.

Excerpt from Le Journal du Poids Lourd: France Mobilité Biogaz and Esterifrance have joined forces in a joint position paper to challenge the European Commission's desire to focus its efforts on electrification to decarbonize road transport. Both companies advocate bioNGV and fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) biodiesels.

" We fully support the ambitious transport decarbonization targets set by the European Union. For this very reason, we deplore the fact that the regulation on CO2 emission standards de facto excludes biogenic low-carbon solutions such as bioNGV and liquid biofuels by only considering direct exhaust emissions. This approach ignores the contribution to decarbonization enabled by our sectors that capture carbon during the production of their fuels. And it thus jeopardizes the efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of local authority and transport fleets, by risking depriving them of immediately available, reliable and affordable alternatives ," they lament in a joint note.

France Mobilité Biogaz and Esterifrance claim to " understand the choice of electricity as a key energy source on the path to decarbonization ," but criticize the fact that it is being positioned as the sole solution. " Europe's ambition for decarbonization is such that, to maintain the trajectory, all available energies must be mobilized by transport stakeholders. This is a condition for preserving the finances of local authorities and the competitiveness of European transporters and manufacturers ," they add.

Three requests

In this new alert, the two unions are calling for a review of the CO2 regulations for heavy vehicles without waiting until 2027, the officially scheduled deadline. France Mobilité Biogaz and Esterifrance are making three clear demands: