When I went to buy a new car in 2014 I was still working at the Environmental Department IJmond. What you preach is what you practice so my new car had to be as environmentally friendly as possible. At that time we were promoting driving on Biogas and electric transport. The range of electric vehicles was not that big at the time. Because I continued to go on vacation by car, the choice to drive on Biogas was quickly made. After test driving several models, the choice fell on an Audi A3 g-tron. Because an automatic A3 emits just 1 gram per kilometer less CO2 than a manual gearbox, the g-tron was only available with an automatic transmission in the Netherlands. The automatic was eligible for a favourable additional tax rate and the manual version was not. This was a problem for us because we easily get car sick in an automatic car. But eventually the model was made available with a manual gearbox and we now drive one of the few manual g-tron cars in the Netherlands.
Driving on Biogas is very much to my liking. The Biogas filling station in my hometown is 300 meters from my house. There are also plenty of Biogas filling stations in Germany. So I make it a sport to drive on petrol as little as possible. Only when it is very cold or when you have refuelled with Biogas does the engine start on petrol. In the Netherlands I have a range of about 300 km on a tank of Biogas. In Germany, where the quality of the gas is higher, the range is about 400 km. We have designed the filling stations in such a way that it takes very little time to refuel one extra time. In the latest models, the gas tank has been reduced in size and a third gas tank has been added. The range of these models is greater. I keep track of the consumption of the car on Autoweek.
Unfortunately, disadvantages of driving on Biogas do exist in a financial sense. Because the car is equipped with two additional gas tanks, it is heavier than the gasoline version and is just in a heavier weight class. You also have to pay more road tax when driving on Biogas. To me, this is still not a logical choice of the government. However, a kilo of Biogas costs less than a liter of petrol and you get further on Biogas. In the end, you recoup the higher road tax through the lower fuel costs.
