Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly mandated the acceleration of deliveries under the government’s natgas vehicle swap scheme as the second batch delivery rates continue to stutter “unsatisfactorily,” the prime minister said during a meeting yesterday The government this year began rolling out a plan that it hopes will see as many as 450k cars outfitted with dual-fuel engines by 2024 under the scheme to swap out old, gasoline-fueled vehicles.

What’s holding things up? Operational challenges facing automakers and suppliers around the world have been putting a dent in the production of components and infrastructure needed for manufacturing, after a global economic crisis struck the world’s auto industries at the beginning of the pandemic last year, local factory officials said. A global semiconductor shortage has also forced many brands to slow production. Assembly facilities are also facing delays in the arrival of some shipments of manufacturing components, officials added, stressing that authorities are taking the necessary steps to overcome these challenges.

Where do things stand now? As many as 3k citizens have so far received new natgas-run cars to replace their old ones, with 1.7k additional cars to be delivered this month, out of some 68k people who had applied to convert their vehicles to run on natural gas as of early April. The strategy aims to get 70k new natgas cars on the road this year, and to take as many as 1.8 mn cars off the road to be outfitted with dual-fuel engines over the course of a decade under a multi-year natural gas transition plan.