Fuelture constantly stresses the importance of quality when opting to have your car converted to LPG.  And we are not alone; Powertrain, Calor, Birmingham Trading Standards, MG Rover Group, LP Gas Association and the Energy Saving Trust are warning the public about the dangers of getting an unapproved LPG Conversion.

Recent research unveiled that 19 out of 20 cars converted by an unapproved garage proved to be potentially dangerous.  The industry is looking to introduce a licensing scheme in addition to the LPGA list of approved installers.  MP, Melanie Johnson commented:

Following the LPG Conversion subsidy, over 10,000 Aussie’s have called the LPG hotline number to make enquiries and 87% of the callers are desperate to convert - Sydney Daily Telegraph.

The surge in demand has resulted in the staff handling the calls growing from 4 to 90 people and the demand for LPG cars from the manufacturer has also increase by 10,000 vehicles. The waiting list for having an LPG Conversion is around 2 months, encouraging more mechanics to become qualified in LPG Conversions.

Raising the profile of LPG even more in Australian… Ford set a challenge of completing a lap of the country in an LPG car on a fuel budget of $1000. The 14,000km trip was completed with a pocket full of change left over!

Subaru have announced that the Tribeca will now be available as an LPG Car. The German Chairman, Jens Becker, boasted that “significant savings could be achieved without a loss to performance, comfort and safety.” The LPG Subaru will be launched in Europe later this year.

The press are reporting that there has been a drop in demand for SUV’s and other gas guzzling cars; perhaps Subaru is making the right move to improve the emission standard of these cars.

Sources: RawStory

The Met Police already have LPG patrol cars operating in London and now have plans to introduce hydrogen fuelled cars into the fleet. The Honda Hybrid’s are still under development but hopefully by 2010 a total of 70 hybrids will be patrolling the streets of Greater London. The cars are getting modified to withstand gunfire and crashes. Not only are these cars cheaper to run, they are also a lot more environmentally sound. A Scotland Yard spokesperson stated that the volatility of the oil market and the issues surrounding global warming have brought on this change to the cars.

The Scotsman reported today that there has been a recent increase of interest in LPG Conversions for Cars. Jim Currie reported that

“Word is spreading of a green solution to running a car that has no apparent snags.”

Fuelture’s own, Gbenga Kogbe (Managing Director) gave a comment to the Scotsman stating that,

“We can fit an LPG conversion to the average family saloon for around £1,900 adn a typical 4×4 for £2,300…This is inclusive of VAT and we would expect to have the vehicle in our workshop for four to five days.“

The article covered cost, performance, availabilty, approved converters and environmental issues. The article has been posted on our online magazine should you wish to read more.

Approved LPG Conversion Specialists are fully booked for 2006 since the Australian Government introduced the LPG Grant Scheme. Robert Cowan, The Gas Man, Sydney told an Australian Newspaper

“We’re already booked out to January so I don’t know what we’ll do”

This is great news for the environment and LPG Converters. However, not so great if you want your car converted. Australian’s will need to wait 5 months for a conversion date which is not good enough for some. Motorists are being warned about the dangers of not having an approved conversion. LPG Cowboys are taking advantage of the increase in demand leaving some drivers with poor qualtiy conversions and LPG systems. Bad conversions and dodgy equipment can seriously damage the car, costing a lot of money to repair. Moral - only have an LPG Conversion from an approved dealer!

Chicago is displaying a wide range of alternative fuel vehicles, ranging from London Taxi’s to Twike’s. The aim of the show is to view the vehicles, talk to the owners and learn about what is really involved in owning and driving an alternative fuel vehicle. Increasing awareness and educating people to make an informed decision about their chosen mode of transport is important in order to change mindsets towards greener transport.

Fuelture has an Information Guide to LPG; request a copy by emailing info@fuelture.com

In response to soaring oil prices the Australian Government have introduced a subsidy scheme for LPG Conversions. The Government is offering A$2,000 (£808) to people who convert their car to LPG and A$1,000 (£404) to people who buy cars that are already running on LPG. Petrol Stations will receive a grant of $20,000 (£8086) for supplying LPG at a lower price than unleaded petrol (40% lower). The scheme is said to be costing A$1.6bn over an eight year period. Critics have commented that despite the grant, lower-income drivers will still not be able to afford the cost of the conversion. LPG Conversions in Australia cost around A$4,000 (£1670) and save a typical driver around A$1,400 (£566) per year on fuel costs.

This is great news for the Aussies, perhaps the UK will follow suit - fingers crossed!

On August 5th “Stuff.co.nz” reported that the Kiwi’s have launched a dual-fuel Holden Commodore in New Zealand. The LPG Holden has come from Australia, where LPG is very common and the market is well developed. New Zealander’s are being educated on LPG, highlighting the environmental benefits along with the financial upside of running your car on LPG. Stuff reported that:

“The system is so efficient it is able to mimic the engine’s petrol injection sequence, and that means power and torque figures when on LPG are close to those when on petrol - in other words, there is no performance loss.”

The dual-fuel Holden does cost NZ$7150 more than the petrol model which is around £2,300. However, LPG is less than half the cost of petrol in New Zealand as it is in the UK, Europe, Australia and the States, so the overall cost saving is still worth the extra initial cost, especially when you consider how beautiful the New Zealand landscape is… why would anyone damage this?

I noticed over the weekend that the cost of petrol is now 99.9p in some parts of the UK. How can anyone afford this?

The fuel duty on petrol was 47.1p last summer (published by the BBC), due to the devastating effects that Hurricane Katrina had on the US oil production. Today’s headlines told us that BP has been forced to close one of it’s largest oil fields due to a leak in a pipeline; what effect will this have on the cost of fuel? The closed oil field was responsible for 8% of US daily oil production, producing 400,000 barrels a day at $77.10 per barrel. Company Spokesman, Darren Beaudo stated:

“We don’t know how long the field will be down but we will not resume operation of the field until we and government regulators are satisfied that they can be operated safely and pose no threat to the environment.”

This US oil field closure could potentially affect the cost of our fuel. With LPG users having security over low fuel duty they are less at risk from external threats on the cost of Gas. Is it time for your car to have an LPG Conversion?