Suddenly, Britain's motorists are cooking with gas again. Three years ago and autogas, aka LPG, had all but died a death, but it's amazing what sky-high fuel prices will do. Now the half-price fuel is experiencing a renaissance and car conversions are once again the talk of the forecourt.
'We've more than doubled the turnover in one year,' says Noel Lock, director of Bath-based LPG convertors The Greenfuel Company. 'We've had moments when we've been inundated with sales and that's a bit a startling for us. May was a record month, June was a record month, July was a record month, and August is looking good too.'
LPG, or liquid petroleum gas, is the same stuff as comes in the red Calor bottles. Compressed, it becomes liquefied and so can be pumped to use as a road fuel. Its chief attraction for today's cash-conscious motorists is the low duty, pricing it at exactly half that regular petrol, currently around 57p a litre.
The reason for the reduction is even more appropriate for the times: running on LPG produces around 15% less CO2 compared to petrol, as well as reducing harmful local pollutants
You can't pump it direct into the existing tank, so you need a second one, along with a feed to the engine. The regular petrol tank stays (diesels can't be converted) and the engine can still run on regular unleaded if you get caught short.
The conversion costs anything from £1,500 to £2,500, so you need to be in it for the long haul, but the savings will come. For example, over 10,000 miles in a petrol car normally doing 35mpg, you can expect to save yourself £600. That takes into account the fact you'll use roughly a fifth more. You'll also do well at resale time.
Second-hand LPG cars run from a few hundred quid to £35,000 for a V8 Hummer, but you'll need to check the converter was approved by the LPG Association to avoid the worst bodge jobs. The most desirable are the manufacturer conversions carried out by Vauxhall, Volvo, Rover/MG and Ford in the early part of this decade.
But getting a conversion done can be more cost-effective, as city broker Simon Wright found when he was researching buying his second-hand Jeep Cherokee V8. 'The converted ones had about a four grand premium, so I bought mine for eight grand and got a conversion done in Essex for £2,500,' he says. 'That was October last year and it's already paid for itself
Wright's accelerated saving isn't just down to fuel costs, however. Certain LPG conversions are exempted from the London congestion charge, and look set to stay that way under Mayor Boris.
Inside London, only certain LPG conversions are exempted - perversely, Wright's 4.7 V8 Cherokee is the only large 4x4 allowed - but outside anyone can take advantage of LPG savings. There's a £15-20 discount of your yearly tax bill and even free residents' parking in some urban boroughs.
Source: Channel 4 News |
