Alexey Miller: gas-powered KAMAZ proves efficiency of natural gas as motor fuel
RELEASE
News from projects and regions
Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Management Committee, met at the Gazprom headquarters with Sergey Kogotin, Director General of KAMAZ, Vladimir Chagin, Head of the KAMAZ-Master team, and pilots of the team. Discussion centered on the results of Russian pilots in international races and the outlook for future cooperation.
This year the KAMAZ-Master team once again confirmed its champion’s status in sports truck races and occupied the entire victory podium of the Dakar-2015 Rally, as well as winning the first and the second position in the Africa Eco Race 2015.
Sergey Kogotin (third from right) and pilots of KAMAZ-Master team headed by Vladimir Chagin (fourth from right)
A gas-powered sports truck was included into the KAMAZ-Master team and participated in the Africa Eco Race for the first time. The gas-powered KAMAZ was able to meet all the challenges of the African marathon and to get into the top three in the overall standing of the truck race.
Center – Sergey Kupriyanov, Vitaly Markelov, Alexey Miller and Sergey Kogotin with pilots of KAMAZ-Master team headed by Vladimir Chagin (third from right)
“With all my heart I would like to congratulate you on your new well-deserved victory which you won on two continents simultaneously. This year we were following the KAMAZ-Master team performance with a particular interest. The gasfired KAMAZ vividly showed the efficiency of natural gas used as a motor fuel,” said Alexey Miller.
Background
KAMAZ is the biggest truck-manufacturing corporation in Russia. Currently, the company is implementing the program of designing and manufacturing gas-fired trucks. KAMAZ supplies gas-powered vehicles and machinery to Gazprom within the framework of the Program for expanding the use of compressed natural gas as a motor fuel for Gazprom Group in-house vehicles in 2014–2017.
The KAMAZ-Master team is a three-time winner of the Off-Road Rally World Cup, frequent prize winner and 13-fold champion of transcontinental super-marathon Dakar of the highest complexity rating, 4-fold champion of The Silk Road International Rally and continuous leader of Russian rally championships.
The gas-powered KAMAZ is a special prototype of a sports heavy-load vehicle using natural gas as a motor fuel. The KAMAZ-Master team sponsored by Gazprom and VTB bank designed it in 2013. The objective of this project is to demonstrate the capabilities of natural gas as a motor fuel.
Between December 28, 2014 and January 11, 2015 the gas-powered KAMAZ participated in the Africa Eco Race 2015. A mobile gas fuelling vehicle of Gazprom Gazomotornoye Toplivo was fuelling the truck during the Africa Eco Race 2015.
Gazprom Gazomotornoye Toplivo is a unified operator for developing the NGV market on behalf of Gazprom. It was established in December 2012. The objective of this company is to promote natural gas as a motor fuel, which is more environmentally friendly, more cost-efficient and safer as compared to traditional fuels.