Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), Iveco and Snam, the Italian natural gas infrastructure company, signed a memorandum of understanding to support the development of natural gas as fuel for road vehicles.
Italian market consumed more than 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas as fuel for vehicles in 2015 with about a million vehicles on the roads, Snam said in its statement.
Under the memorandum of understanding, the three companies plan to cooperate in boosting the use of compressed natural gas.
FCA is looking to develop alternative fuel motors while Iveco has already developed vehicles fueled by both CNG and LNG. Together, the two companies intend to further develop the range of their respective natural gas-fueled vehicle ranges.
Snam will invest approximately €200 million over the next five years to develop facilities for the supply of CNG, expanding the service stations network currently counting 1,100.
It is expected that the number of stations will reach over 2,000 in the next 10 years, Snam said.