This blog has been relatively quiet, but now we have some big news for you. The Fuelture website will now be run by CLS Dual Fuel Ltd. This change means that you get to deal directly with one of our trusted suppliers and indeed a leading player in the UK LPG sector. You can find out more about CLS here. Thanks for all your support, keep saving and stay green!

Take a look at this interesting piece in the Guardian.

The London congestion charge expands westwards into Kensington and Chelsea today. This relatively controversial scheme is still gathering a lot of attention from other cities in the UK (and beyond). Friends of the Earth Scotland are now campaigning for the introduction of a similar scheme in Scottish cities. We continue to receive a lot of calls from Londoners looking to beat the congestion charge by going green with LPG.

If you are a Londoner, then take a look at the map below to see if the London congestion charge zone is likely influence your behaviour.

I picked this up in Glasgow the other day.

Roses are red

Violets are blue

If you screw the planet

The planet will screw you!

So scientists from all over the world have looked at the data and are in agreement, our impact on global warming cannot be ignored. This global problem has local implications (loss of food production, increased flooding, melting ice caps, more disease, loss of land species, water shortages, stronger hurricanes…). We need global agreement and local action. The data seems to show that action today can mitigate but reverse climate change. So what are we going to do about it!? Change that light bulb to a more energy efficient one, use that car less, share a ride, convert to LPG, take the train, adopt other low carbon fuels….

Take a look the webcast of the press conference…

Your warranty could be worth quite a bit of change depending on the make and model of your vehicle! A recent survey of claims for cars 3-9 years old (run both in the UK and US) by Warranty Direct emphasises why this often overlooked issue needs closer review. Many of our customers wonder if they should risk losing their warranty cover by carrying out a LPG conversion on the engine. Well the answer seems to be, it depends. You can make your own call by checking out the results in the table below (also take a look at this). The key is to compare the probability of making a claim and the size of the average claim with your savings from a LPG conversion. I picked this info up from an article in the Guardian.

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.

Yes, we are putting our wee weight behind this petition to the UK government. David Webber’s position is the following:

“LPG and other green (fuel) powered vehicles emit significantly lower emissions when compared with a petrol powered vehicle. The current Road Tax system allows for newer green cars to be Road Tax exempt but older LPG converted cars are not included in this scheme. If the government really is interested in decreasing emisions from transportation then it should encourage the public to spend the money on the LPG conversion for thier car and as a reward make them Road Tax exempt.”

We urge you to support this petition by signing up here.

“The prizes of reduced congestion at peak times, better traffic management, improved air quality and lower emissions are worth striving for.” These are the words of Johm Lewis of the BVRLA (British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association) published in a recent article in Fleet News. Mr Lewis claims that the BVRLA would support road pricing “provided that its implementation is practical, fair in taxation terms and is not an adminsistrative burden on the industry”.

My view is that road pricing is a great idea, however a simple solution is to tax fuels according to their negative social impact. The more you drive, the more fuel you burn, the more tax you pay. The cleaner the fuel you use, the lower the tax burden. Longer journeys would result in less tax paid per mile (assuming motorway driving results in higher engine efficiency) and shorter journeys with more stop-and-starts result in more tax paid per mile - driving to the newsagents for the Sunday paper will not be a good idea.

Taxation can shape our behaviour. Let’s keep it simple. Any thoughts would be appreciated.