QLink and IEG to introduce first eco-friendly taxi fleet in the UAE

"Q Link represents Al Qudra Holding's vision of environmental stewardship, our new eco-friendly fleet of taxis serving Abu Dhabi and the UAE will be operating this year," announced Khalifa Khoury, Chairman, Q Link.

"We will convert Q Link fleet to use compressed natural gas (CNG) as an alternate fuel," said Zeyad Al Majed, General Manager, IEG, the region's first international energy alliance to promote advanced energy technologies. "Al Qudra Holding has a great vision and we are glad to join hands with its subsidiaries to power national growth and build a sustainable future in Abu Dhabi using clean transportation technologies."

One of the key benefits of using CNG is that oil & gas companies, will realize higher profits from natural gas as a clean fuel for transportation than industrial and utility customers and they will also reduce their losses from subsidized petrol.

"The benefits of conversion to CNG as a clean transportation fuel has a lot of virtues to its credit," said Hadi Tahboub, General Manger, Q Link. "Fleet operators can benefit from a reduced fuel cost by 30 to 40% at least and the quality of air will be improved dramatically, since 80% of air pollution in the UAE is caused by vehicle emissions and CNG reduces emissions dramatically."

The challenges of commercializing CNG for transportation fuel are gas supply, gas distribution infrastructure, culture change and government policies. The infrastructure that allows the utilization of CNG commercially in the UAE is slowly coming together.

"We have one fueling station in Abu Dhabi at the moment and we hope that in the coming few years more CNG fueling stations will be built," said Zeyad Al Majed. "The culture challenge is not going to be a barrier because many of the experts working and living in the UAE have experienced Natural Gas Vehicles ( NGV) in their countries as private cars, taxi or fleet."