Protecting the environment: biogas for freight transport
The Council of States and the National Council have taken a groundbreaking decision to promote fossil-free commercial vehicles in Switzerland. In future, the use of biogas will benefit from a reduction in the HVF. The amount of this heavy vehicle charge depends on the total weight, the emission level and the number of kilometers driven. At present, only trucks with electric drives benefit from an exemption from HVF. [...]
The amount of this heavy vehicle charge depends on the total weight, the emission level and the number of kilometers driven. Currently, only trucks with an electric drive benefit from HVF exemption.
Adapting technological developments
The motion, which was submitted by the Council of States' Transport and Telecommunications Committee in 2019, requires the Federal Council to regularly adapt laws and ordinances relating to commercial vehicles to new technological developments. This should allow more commercial vehicles with alternative drive systems to benefit from a reduction in the HVF.
This also brings advantages for trucks that run on biogas or liquefied biogas (LBG, Liquefied Bio Gas). By way of comparison, a 40-tonne truck with an old diesel engine and an annual mileage of 80,000 kilometers has to calculate with over 99,000 francs in HVF charges, and a vehicle with a modern Euro 6 diesel still costs almost 73,000 francs per year.
In contrast, a partial exemption will be deducted in future for trucks that run on renewable gas. The exact amount of the reduction will be revealed as soon as the implementation bill for the motion is available.
CO2 savings through biogas trucks
Last year, the Federal Statistical Office estimated that 17,800 million tonne-kilometres were transported in Switzerland. If some of these are covered by biogas trucks, large amounts of CO2 can be saved.
The Swiss gas industry has been campaigning for years to promote low-emission commercial vehicles.
Daniela Decurtins, Director of the Association of the Swiss Gas Industry (VSG): "Road transport is currently the biggest source of greenhouse gases in Switzerland. Fossil-free fuels such as biogas, LBG and hydrogen can make a major contribution to Switzerland achieving its environmental and climate targets, particularly in freight transport."
