In September 2016, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy launched the Round Table on Gas-based Mobility chaired by State Secretary Rainer Baake to promote gas-based mobility.

The Round Table aimed to foster the use of natural gas as a fuel. Gas-fuelled vehicles are characterised by low CO2 emissions, and they emit no particles and hardly any nitrogen oxides. Therefore the use of natural gas as a fuel can considerably contribute to reducing emissions of fine particles in our cities and help to trigger a turnaround in CO2 emissions in the transport sector. The Round Table discussed a package of measures to reach a share of natural gas of 4% in energy consumption in the transport sector by 2020. This target was agreed upon at the end of 2015 between the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the automotive industry.

Representatives of vehicle manufacturers, gas suppliers, operators of fuelling stations, retail trade customers, fleet operators and the public sector attended the meetings of the Round Table. A number of working groups on specific issues for car, truck and bus manufacturers and on customer-market relations produced interim results which were presented at the second and third sessions of the Round Table. Amongst other points, eight large focus regions have been identified in Germany in which efforts are to be made to press quickly ahead with the use of gas-fuelled vehicles and the expansion of the related infrastructure. In addition to this, the Economic Affairs Ministry has held talks with large trading companies, Länder representatives and the main associations of municipalities.