KAMAZ to develop natural gas-fueled models of intercity bus and off-road vehicle for Gazprom
RELEASE
Release
A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Sergey Kogogin, Director General of KAMAZ, took place today.
The parties discussed the progress and prospects of their cooperation aimed at developing the natural gas vehicle market in Russia.
It was noted that KAMAZ, at the initiative of Gazprom, has launched the batch production of a wide range of natural gas-powered cars and machinery. Today, the automobile plant produces about 130 models of such motor vehicles, which makes over a half of the entire range of gas-powered vehicles currently offered by Russian manufacturers. Since 2014, Gazprom has been systematically purchasing the KAMAZ gas-powered vehicles (inter alia, drop side trucks, semi-trailer trucks and dump trucks) to update the vehicle fleets of the Company's subsidiaries.
The parties pay particular attention to the manufacture of innovative gas-powered vehicle models. For instance, a batch of LNG-powered KAMAZ-5490 NEO freight trucks intended for the transportation of thermally-insulated containers with liquid helium was custom-made by KAMAZ for Gazprom.
In the autumn of 2022, Gazprom and KAMAZ signed the agreement for the supply of a new range of all-wheel drive models, namely, KAMAZ-6250 buses for shift personnel and KAMAZ-62501 mobile workshop trucks. Most of those vehicles will be natural gas-powered and adapted for operation in the Far North. The first batch of the buses for shift personnel is planned to be delivered to Gazprom this year.
In the course of the meeting, Alexey Miller and Sergey Kogogin signed an Agreement of Cooperation. Under the document, KAMAZ will develop natural gas-fueled intercity bus and off-road vehicle models for Gazprom.
The buses are planned to be used on public roads for the transportation of employees to the working places that are located considerably away from the available public transport infrastructure. The off-road vehicles are planned to be used as multipurpose machinery to tackle various tasks related to the operating activities in hard-to-reach locations.
The parties will elaborate the technical solutions with regard to the design, structural components and configurations of the new models and perform the testing of the prototypes.
Background
Gazprom carries out extensive work to develop Russia's NGV market. For instance, Gazprom has agreements with the largest automakers to include natural gas-powered models into their product lines.
In June 2015, Gazprom and KAMAZ signed the Agreement on strategic areas of cooperation for the wider use of natural gas as a vehicle fuel.
The KAMAZ Group of Companies is the largest automotive corporation in the Russian Federation. Currently, KAMAZ is implementing a program for the development and manufacturing of NGVs and takes active part in governmental programs aiming to develop the NGV market.
In October 2022, Gazprom and KAMAZ signed the Agreement of Cooperation for the supply of a new range of all-wheel drive models by KAMAZ. According to the document, in 2023–2025, KAMAZ will produce and in a stepwise manner deliver to Gazprom's subsidiaries 420 buses for shift personnel of the KAMAZ-6250 model and 80 mobile workshop trucks of the KAMAZ-62501 model.