A CENTRE of excellence for the development of natural gas vehicles to increase their use worldwide is to be opened in the autumn in the UK.

To be located in the south-east of England, the centre is the brainchild of BG Group - part of the former British Gas empire - which includes BG International, Transco and The Leasing Group.

A BG spokeswoman said: 'We have an agreement with Lotus, with whom we are working on natural gas vehicle technology, and we hope to talk to other car manufacturers in the future about taking this technology forward.'

The new centre will bring together all BG's expertise in technological and commercial aspects of natural gas vehicles and co-ordinate sales and marketing of technology worldwide.

In the UK, BG and its subsidiaries operate a handful of gas-powered vehicles and have business relations with organisations including Edinburgh City Council.