Just a couple of days ago, German car manufacturers were complaining that the new EU emissions standards could have a negative impact on their competitiveness (too costly to make low emission high performance cars!). Now it seems that the folks in Brussels heard them loud and clear! The new rules do not push car manufacturers as hard as was in initially anticipated. In fact, according to the FT, the rules seem to indicate that “car makers will not take all the pain in reducing carmon dioxide emissions” and that oil companies will be expected to take some of the pain by being “forced” to blend biofuels into their conventional fuel products. It is my view that future is going to involve a variety of solutions (no silver bullet). Recent long-term tests on LPG cars in the UK show a reduction of 15% when compared to petrol, so this old lady has not sung yet!

GSPK Multifuel Technology, one of the UK companies that promotes LPG conversions for diesel trucks, recently announced that independent scientific testing supported the claims of lower fuel cost savings observed by its customers.

There has been quite a bit of uncertainty about the effectiveness of LPG conversions for diesel engines in cars, mainly related to the long-term performance of these systems and the impact on engine life.

In fact, the LPG Association (in the UK) does not currently endorse the use of any LPG conversion system for diesel cars. So, it would be interesting to watch the development of dual fuel solutions targeted at trucks such as those touted by GSPK.