Vehicle population will hit 27m by 2030, if not controlled

The number of vehicles in the Kingdom will increase to 27 million by 2030 if the situation is allowed to go unchecked, Mohamed Ibrahim, a member of Saudi Center for Energy Efficiency (SEEC), has warned.
Speaking at a workshop on “Energy efficiency” at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce on Sunday, he said vehicles currently consume about 1.86 million barrels of oil in Saudi Arabia.
Ibrahim urged the authorities to reduce the number of transport vehicles, which consume 23% of the total energy. These vehicles have seen an annual growth of 7% during the past ten years, he said.
The workshop was launched by Mazen Khalid Katabi, director of business sector, in the presence of officials from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Saudi Customs, Saudi Organization for Standardization and Metrology and representatives of global tire distributors and agents industry.
The workshop was part of the series of events held in the Kingdom to focus on the requirements of the rolling resistance and traction on wet surfaces of tires, in order to improve the energy efficiency of vehicles.
Ibrahim said that it is estimated that energy consumption will be reduced by 2 percent to 4 percent after the application of regulations.
“Energy efficiency cards will will be mandatory for small car tires beginning November. The energy efficiency cards for medium and heavy vehicles will be implemented from November 2016.”
Tires available with distributors and agents will be subject to control starting November 2017, he said.
“You can get the efficiency cards for each traded tire from the agent or distributor from the middle of next month through Saudi Organization for Standardization and Metrology after paying a nominal fee of SR3,” he said.