Mobility Basic Figures

According to the EU funded project ALTERMOTIVE the car stock in Austria has grown from about 1.2m cars in 1970 to more than 4 m cars in 2007. Following the official mobility statistics of Austria (Verkehr in Zahlen) there are 498 cars per 1,000 inhabitants in Austria which is one of the highest figures in the EU. Diesel cars increased their market share continuously and represent currently more than 50% of the vehicle stock (together with Belgium Austria has the highest share of diesel cars within the EU). Until 2008 about 85% of the diesel cars were equipped with particulate filters. Regarding the development of alternative car types in recent years, gas driven cars have increased to about 700 and hybrid cars to about 550 in 2007. The stock of electric cars stands at about 180 since the mid-1990s. According to data collection within the EU funded project MADEGASCAR for 2009 in Austria there is a stock of 235 biogas passenger cars, 70 busses used in public transport and 1 heavy duty vehicle. Currently in Austria the are 16 passenger car models and 8 light duty vehicles available on the market that run with CNG/biogas.

According to the Austrian Environmental Agency in 2009 318,739 passenger cars were newly registered, more than 26,034 cars in 2008 (+8.9%). About 46% were diesel vehicles, about 54% petrol cars which is a dramatically shift compared with the previous year (55% diesel cars). 1,055 of the new registered cars were hybrid cars, 1,428 were ethanol driven (E85, Flexifuel), 270 natural gas vehicles, 227 vehicles for a combined gasoline and natural gas operation, 3 vehicles for a combined gasoline and LPG, as well as 39 electric vehicles. The calculated CO2 emissions had on average for gasoline-fuelled vehicles at 148 g/km and for diesel vehicles to 153 g/km. The average CO2 emissions for all gasoline and diesel operated vehicles amounted to 150.3 g/km (in 2008 157.7 g/km).

In May 2010 there were just 223 electric cars registered in Austria, plus 3,559 hybrid cars, from a total 4.36 million cars on Austrian roads. But the Austrian motor vehicle association is predicting the number of electric vehicles will grow exponentially over the years to come. VCO predicts there will be 115,000 automobiles with electric or hybrid motors by 2015. According to the Austrian Ministry of Transport it is the aim to have 100,000 pure electric vehicles on the streets in 2020. For 2010 a pilot project in an urban centre is planned with 100 electric vehicles. In 2012 the volume of pure electric vehicles should be increased towards 1,000. In order to reach these goals, several initiatives are underway. The federal state of Styria is foreseeing a model-region for e-mobility.

For Austria there are currently listed about 27 refuelling stations for flexifuel E85 (the European Environmental Atlas listed 14), the largest number in Vienna and Lower Austria (Niederösterreich). The ÖVFG list 13 LPG refuelling stations in Austria, mostly in the Graz region (in the European Environmental Atlas there are listed 2; due to the high tax  on LPG the market for LPG is very limited in Austria. The end customer price for LPG is higher than the price for petrol, diesel and natural gas). There is further a well developed network of more than 100 refuelling stations for biodiesel all-around the country. The lion share of biodiesel is distributed as blend with fossil fuel. In Austria, the are currently two completely different concepts for the distribution of biogas to vehicles:

1. The biogas processing unit plus biogenic CNG filling station in Margarethen am Moos (the only pure 100% biogas refuelling station in Austria)  is the smallest commercially run facility of its kind anywhere in the world (independent processing and distribution facility). Its simple, compact design has advantages both for operation and economically. After the success of demonstration-plant in Margarethen am Moos it is now planned, to find 25 more locations in Austria to construct an upgrading plant und a local fuel station similar to Margarethen am Moos.

2. Distribution/refuelling stations which are connected to the national gas grid. This allows distributing the biogas to any natural gas customers. I.e. the biogas from the Salzburg Ag region is distributed nationwide to the national gas grid towards a network of filling stations. This procedure is identical to the green energy balance system of electricity distribution with the important difference that purified biogas is chemically different from natural gas. Due to this regulation, any gas station has access to biogas. In Austria, a relatively widespread natural gas service network is located approximately 150 public refuelling stations (as of end 2009). This number of stations will increase in the coming years by the increasing emergence of biogas producer using the gas grid and the associated demand for biogas / natural gas cars continue.

Distribution/refuelling stations which are connected to the national gas grid. This allows distributing the biogas to any natural gas customers. I.e. the biogas from the Salzburg Ag region is distributed nationwide to the national gas grid towards a network of filling stations. This procedure is identical to the green energy balance system of electricity distribution with the important difference that purified biogas is chemically different from natural gas. Due to this regulation, any gas station has access to biogas. In Austria, a relatively widespread natural gas service network is located approximately 150 public refuelling stations (as of end 2009). This number of stations will increase in the coming years by the increasing emergence of biogas producer using the gas grid and the associated demand for biogas / natural gas cars continue.

According to the IEE funded project GasHighWay there are 168 CNG filling stations in Austria which are well distributed over the country (Vienna: 19, Upper Austria: 33, Lower Austria: 29, Styria: 22, Tyrol: 20, Salzburg: 17, Vorarlberg: 12, Carinthia: 9 and Burgenland: 7) and are situated along the natural gas grid, as the natural gas grid is well developed in Austria. The stations are placed in large cities (> 50.00 inhabitants), along commuting or strategic national roads or traffic junctions. Just few of them (approximately 3 to 5) are on or nearby highways. The public CNG filling stations are mostly integrated into existing conventional filling station, where also petrol and diesel will be sold.

The webpage www.lemnet.org/LEMnet_Land.asp list about 296 public accessible recharging stations for electro vehicles in Austria. The webpage www.oeamtc.at/etankstellen/ includes a geo-information system for finding public accessible recharging stations in Austria. www.elektrotankstellen.net offers a list of about 3000 (June 2011) in Austria (it also includes semi professional recharging infrastructure):

In a number of Austrian provinces there are strong indicatives to extent the professional infrastructure for recharging electro vehicles, i.e. in Vorarlberg within the Project Projekts VLOTTE (www.vlotte.at), in Linz (www.linzag.at) or in Kärnten (www.lebensland.com). Since 2009 there are more than 20 rechahrging station located on public roads and parking slots in Salzburg (see www.electrodrive.at). With the so-called ElectroDrive-Client Card each usaer gets access to the recharging stations. Each recharging slot has an display presenting information about nearest access to public transport means and other trip information.

On www.h2stations.org/ two hydrogen filling stations for vehicles (Solar Hydrogen Station; Sattledt and HycentA Hydrogen Center Austria; Graz) are listed.

Fiscal Instruments

Car ownership tax (Normverbrauchsabgabe NoVA) bonuses cars with low fuel consumption and alternative drive:

• Starting in July 2008 the NoVA bonuses environmentally conscious car drivers, opting for economical and environmentally friendly cars with a tax bonus of 500 EUR.

• For cars with CO2 emissions lower than 120 g / km NoVA the tax bonus is 300 EUR. At high consumption is however a penalty: For vehicles with CO2 emissions greater than 180 g / km, the tax increases to 31 December 2009 at EUR 25 per gram of CO2 per kilometre (malus). From 1 January 2010 the penalty limit of 160 g CO2 per kilometre lowered.

• For gasoline vehicles with equal or lower than 60 mg / km of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and for diesel vehicles with equal or lower than 80 mg / km NOx and where particulate emissions shall not exceed 0.005 g / km a tax bonus of EUR 200 is foreseen (future EURO 6-Norm). For diesel without a particulate filter a malus of 300 EUR is set.

• For vehicles with environmentally friendly drive motor (hybrid, use of the fuel ethanol specification E85-Super, of methane in the form of natural gas and biogas, LPG or hydrogen) the tax bonus is 500 EUR until 31 August 2012.

• Only for electric vehicles the NoVA is entirely free.

In Austria the EU Directive on the promotion of biofuels was adopted in 2004, followed by the amendment of the Mineral Oil Tax Law in December 2004, which laid down that pure biofuels are completely exempt from mineral oil tax. The blending of up to 2% biodiesel in diesel is also exempted from the mineral oil tax. There is also a tax reduction for the blending of up to 5% biofuels in petrol. Mineral Oil Duty Act2 (Mineralölsteuergesetz, BGBl. I No 180/2004) was amended by the Tax Amendment Act (Abgabenänderungsgesetz) of 30 December 2004. Fuels with a biofuel blending of a minimum of 4.4% and less than 10 mg sulphur per kg fuel are granted tax concessions of 41,2 cent/litre for petrol and 29,7 cent/litre for diesel3. Pure biofuels as CNG and biomethane are completely exempt from mineral oil duty.

Since 2004 in Austria there is a fuel excise tax of 0.425 EUR/litres for gasoline and 0.325 EUR/litres for diesel. Natural gas and biofuels are exempted from excise tax.

Funding

While the federal government does not promote the purchase of a natural gas driven vehicles or other environmental friendly technologies, a few individual Austrian federal provinces, towns and municipalities as well as natural gas companies offer different subsidy models. In most cases, these subsidies refer to the new purchase of natural gas driven vehicles and/or the conversion of vehicles to natural gas operation.

After a national contest, the federal state of Vorarlberg became model region for electro-mobility, funded by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund. Within the first project year, 100 electric vehicles will be in service of different user groups to gain experiences about technical and financial details and changes in mobility behaviour. The VLOTTE-project is carried out in cooperation with Illwerke VKW (local power supply company), Vorarlberg federal state, Vorarlberg public transport system, the Austrian Automobile Association (ÖAMTC), the Technical University of Vienna, Vorarlberg Energy Institute and business partners. In June 2009 the first 30 electric cars were given to users. Within the first project year, 100 cars will be granted. In the near future the test operation shall be extended on further vehicle types. Instead of purchasing an electric car, the customer gets a “mobility card” (approx. 500 EUR€/month). It includes among others car leasing, inspection costs (electric parts), free ride in Vorarlberg Public Transport and free-of-charge refilling at public recharging stations. A key in the park-and-charge system gives access to all park-and-charge stations in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. After 4 years the car will be purchased by the customer for a residual value of 25 % of the initial purchase price.

The Federal Ministry of Live has set up a number of different funding schemas to promote the usage of clean vehicles:

• Enterprise related traffic measures: There are funded measures to reduce CO2 emissions composed of business traffic such as CO2-related changes of transport systems and vehicle fleets, corporate investment measures, measures to reduce transport and mobility services, traffic information and logistics systems. Natural and legal persons as well as public institutions in the form of a holding with market-driven activity, can apply for this schema. The standard funding rate is 20% of the environmental investment and supplements may be replaced by (sustainability award) to max. 30% increase. The application must be filed before the project begins, the environmental investment cost must be at least 10,000 EUR.

• Filling installations for alternative fuels. There are funded investments for a new construction or upgrading of pumps for alternative fuels (biodiesel, gas or E85) for cars. Natural and legal persons as well as public institutions in the form of a holding with market-driven activity, can apply for this schema. Funding is granted as a "de minimis” aid (as a flat rate per pump or tank facility for company tax authorities): E85 4.000 EUR, biodiesel 4.000 EUR, biogas 10.000 EUR; however, max. 30% of environmental investment. The application must be filed before the project begins. The funding is limited to 31.12.2010 or until the budget volume of  1.5m EUR, - is exhausted.

• Green mobility initiatives for leisure and tourism (klima: aktiv mobil): There are funded investments in measures and initiatives to prevent and reduce the greenhouse gases (especially CO2), for environmentally sustainable transport, handling and soft mobility in tourism and leisure traffic. There can apply natural and legal persons who are in the leisure and tourism business (regional authorities, companies, associations, non-profit associations). There are funded up to 50% of the eligible investment costs, operating costs, and externally provided intangible benefits. Funding is granted as a "de minimis" support. The application must be filed before the project starts, the amount deducted for local authorities in at least 25%.

• Mobility management in companies (klima: aktiv mobil): There are funded measures to reduce CO2 emissions from the transport company such as CO2-related changes of transport systems and vehicle fleets, company investment activities to promote public transport and cycling and pedestrian traffic, measures to reduce transport and mobility services, traffic information and logistics systems. Natural and legal persons as well as public institutions in the form of a holding with market-driven activity, can apply for this schema There are funded up to 30% of the eligible investment costs, operating costs, and externally provided intangible benefits. Funding is granted as a "de minimis" support. The application must be filed before the project begins.

• Vehicles with alternative propulsion: There is funded the purchase of up to 10 alternative fuelled vehicles (Natural gas-/Biogas- and electric vehicles, super-ethanol and hybrid vehicles) and the conversion of more than 10 fossil-fuelled vehicles on biodiesel, ethanol and flexifuel E85. The maximum total weight of the vehicles may be allowed per 3.5 tons. Natural and legal persons as well as public institutions in the form of a holding with market-driven activity, can apply for this schema. There is funded max. 30% (50% for local authorities) regarding environmental investment. Submission of applications before purchase of vehicles required.

The Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management launched a program called “klima:aktiv”. klima:aktiv is embedded in the Austrian federal climate strategy, consisting of a bundle of measures of regulation, taxes, and subsidies. In the four thematic clusters Building, Energy Efficiency, Mobility, and Renewable Energy, specific programmes are carried out by various programme managers of different institutions. These programmes follow a comprehensive and systematic approach in supporting the market introduction of climate-friendly technologies, services and activities. One target of this program (“klima:aktiv – mobility”) is to reduce CO2 emissions in the transport sector. One part of this program is focused on NGVs – where the purchase of NGVs will be supported - the financial support is up to 30 % of investment costs (additional costs to implement the CO2 reduction measurement). This program also includes a subventions for building CNG-filling stations (per pump Euro 10.000,-).

Regulative Measures

The biofuel targets obligatory for gasoline and diesel blending (“Substitutionsverpflichtung”) for the transport sector have grown from 2.5% in 2006 towards 5.75% in 2009 and 10% (not obligatory) for 2010.

The City Graz is expected to start an LEZ in autumn/winter 2011 as pilot. It will follow an Austrian national framework.

The federal state of Tirol has various schemes on the A12 motorway to reduce the pollution. The permanent ‘motorway LEZ' has been in place since 1 January 2007 and affects pre-Euro 3 lorries over 7.5 tons. There is also a night-driving ban on pre-Euro 4 lorries over 3.5 tons sectoral driving ban (lorries over 7.5T), an air quality-based speed limit (100km/h for passenger cars), a night time speed limit (all vehicles), and a ban on overtaking (lorries over 3.5 tons).

From autumn 2010 a fuel economy label for cars (Pickerl) will be introduced. The label helps car buyers easily assess the impact on climate change of different cars based on a colored scale. The colours range from GREEN for cars with the lowest CO2 emissions (highest 'mpg') through the colours of the spectrum to RED for the most highly polluting vehicles (generally the lowest 'mpg'). The label are planned to be used also when implementing LEZ.

The EU funded project “buy smart” provides expertise and cost free consultancy on Green Public Procurement also for clean vehicles in Austria (see also www.buy-smart.info/start/artikel298). Among others the following explanations are made by using expertise and information from “buy smart”.

A multi-criteria analysis of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Significant and Ecofys from January 2009 for the years 2007/08 shows that 52% of all public procurement volume in Austria can be considered as green. In the transport sector (vehicle purchase) the average level of green procurement on the total procurement value (indicator 1) was assessed to be rather marginal but the share of single contracts comprising green criteria on the overall number of contracts (indicator 2) was about 78%.

Legal basis for Austrian public procurement is the law "Bundesgesetz über die Vergabe von Aufträgen" (Bundesvergabegesetz 2006 – BVergG 2006). Recently, the threshold for tendering procurement was raised from 40,000 to 100,000 EUR. In §19 (5) it is defined that environmental aspects have to be included in all public procurement processes:

„Im Vergabeverfahren ist auf die Umweltgerechtheit der Leistung Bedacht zu nehmen. Dies kann insbesondere durch die Berücksichtigung ökologischer Aspekte bei der Beschreibung der Leistung, bei der Festlegung der technischen Spezifikationen oder durch die Festlegung konkreter Zuschlagskriterien mit ökologischem Bezug erfolgen.“

With the Council of Ministers, April 1998 "Ecological guidelines of the Federation, in particular on public procurement” the federal government has adopted and revised 2004 rules on green public procurement. These guidelines provide general guidance for environmental action and specific targets to respect ecological principles to the award of public contracts. No specific regulations were established for the vehicle purchase.

A central institution supporting primarily national procurement was established in 2001. The "BBG – Bundesbeschaffung" was established by the Ministry of Finance with the aim to establish a central procurement platform for procurement done by national authorities. The BBG is also open to regional and municipal authorities. More than 30 product groups (no vehicles) are offered covering a wide range of goods and services. Within this framework and funded by the EU LIFE schema there was developed a criteria catalogue of environmental friendly procurement with 11 modules of information to different products not including vehicles. The criteria catalogue is regularly updated. Procurement for the regional administration and for other regional authorities (e.g. district authorities) is done by a department of the regional administration ("Zentrale Beschaffungsorganisation – ZeB"). The ZeB was established in summer 2006 to ensure an efficient procurement. There are 5 different purchasing groups established covering everything from IT, office materials (paper, etc.), office and other electric appliances to fuels and maintenance (no vehicles). In total, ZeB purchased in 2007 goods at about 28.35m EUR. Within the IEE-project GreenLabelsPurchase, a working group was started to include energy efficiency criteria in the ZeB purchasing procedures.

With the Eco-Procurement Service of Vorarlberg one of the European pioneers of the Joint Green Procurement instrument was established in Austria (Ökobeschaffungsservice - ÖBS3). This pilot initiative was reviewed and selected as European best practice i.e. within the EU funded PROCURA project. The ÖBS was set up in 2001 to provide a centralised procurement service for 80 local authorities in the region of Vorarlberg. Results have shown that financial savings of up to 30% have been achieved and administrative workload reduced by up to 60%. The service is financed through a small commission charged on all procurement actions. The ÖBS offers a number of services to the member municipalities in the region:

• Organising of joint procurement activities on behalf of members

• Offering legal and environmental advice on GPP

• Organising workshops on GPP

• Guidelines on GPP for specific product groups - Office Equipment and Building

• Construction

• ÖBS-Service Bundle „Sustainable Construction in the communities“ – Assisting municipalities in implementing sustainable construction.

One of the main drivers to the setting up of joint procurement activities was the realisation that few municipalities were applying environmental criteria even when clear guidance was available. A joint procurement activity was seen as a way to combine both financial and environmental benefits, together with reducing administrative costs – a win-win approach. The joint procurement process is organised as follows:

• Step 1: A municipality submits an order to make a call for tender for certain products.

• Step 2: The ÖBS drafts the technical specifications and defines the award criteria in cooperation with specific municipal and legal experts.

• Step 3: The ÖBS finalises the call for tender.

• Step 4: Quality assurance and tender setting.

• Step 5: The ÖBS places a contract with the best bidder.

• Step 6: All municipalities can use these contracts.

• Step 7: The delivery and invoicing happens directly between the municipalities and the best bidders.

Initially, the focus lay on office-paper and IT-equipment. However, the ÖBS has now extended its joint procurement activities to cover a wide range of products, including lamps for street lighting, cleaning products, office equipment, copiers and multi-functional devices, office furniture, school furniture, equipment for fire brigades and road salt.

Bundesvergabegesetz 2006 – BVergG 2006

CO2-Monitoring 2009

Leitfaden Teil 1; Was Sie über den Kraftstoffverbrauch, CO2-Emissionen sowie den Steuerbonus für sparsame Pkw und alternative Antriebe wissen sollten.

Umweltfreundliche Flotten unterwegs – Leitfaden für betriebliche und kommunale Flottenbetreiber

Öffentliche Verwaltungen - Bares Geld für neue, innovative Wege Bereich „Kommunalfahrzeuge“ Bereich „Spritspar-Trainings“

Elektrotankstellen-Verzeichnis www.elektrotankstellen.net, 12.7.2010

Erdgastankstellen in Österreich, Stand 2006.

SuperEthanol E85: 27 mal in Österreich

LPG refuelling stations in Austria

BUY SMART Energie-effiziente Beschaffung - Leitfaden zur Beschaffung energieeffizienter Produkte und Dienstleistungen – Allgemeiner Teil

Transport

• Umweltorientiertes öffentliches Beschaffungswesen (GPP) − Produktblatt