Foong Speaks Her Mind

No, I am not kidding. This is a more serious post than the previous one.

The solution is simple. In four words:

Use compressed natural gas.

So, what is natural gas? And how do you convert your car into an NGV (natural gas vehicle) like some taxies have done in KL? Here are some facts on natural gas I found through the all-knowing Google and Wikipedia:

1. It is an environmentally friendly substitute to petrol, diesel and propane fuel.

2. It is much safer than motor fuel in cases of fuel spill because it is a gas so it evaporates when leaked unlike petrol which has to be chemically removed.

3. It is now being used by public transportation like buses and taxies, passenger cars, pickup trucks, medium sized lorries and school buses in certain countries. It was mandated in India and Pakistan that the public buses and taxies use natural gas. Here, some taxies have installed this system and some individuals have also converted their vehicles.

4. Normal cars need to be fixed with a pressure regulator to convert the gas from storage pressure to metering pressure and multipoint gas injectors to be able to run on natural gas.

5. Natural gas takes up more space because it is compressed gas and not liquid form. The tank to store it will take up space in the vehicle boot.

6. It only costs 63 sen per litre in Malaysia!

7. The government gives about 20% rebate on road tax if you convert your vehicle to NGV.

8. There are not as many natural gas stations as the normal petrol stations. Currently, only certain Petronas stations have natural gas.

9. It costs between RM2,000 to RM8,000 to install the NGV system and convert a passenger vehicle. The cost depends on the size of the vehicle.

10. NGVs have lesser power than petrol run cars but this was barely noticeable as it was only a very slight difference.

Many people are very apprehensive about converting their cars due to the huge initial lump sum. Forking out a few thousands at one go is a bit painful. I did some calculations and feel that if you plan to drive your car for at least five years without changing it, then it is worth it to change it into NGV. Here’s why:

Let’s say you paid RM4,000 to convert your car and you will drive the car for the next five years. This brings the cost of installing the system to RM66.70 per month.

Then lets look at the petrol costs each month:

Based on current RM2.70 rate, for a 40 litre tank, you spend RM108 each time you fill it up. So, assuming you pump petrol once a week, that’s RM432 each month.

Now, if you are using compressed natural gas, at the 64 sen per litre rate, for a 40 litre tank, you spend RM25.60 to fill up the tank. Four times a month = RM102.40. Add that with the cost of installing the system, RM66.70 each month, and you pay RM169.10 in total each month for natural gas.

So, in total you save RM262.90 each month and in five years, you would have saved RM15,774!! That is assuming that the petrol price will remain at RM2.70 for the next five years, which is impossible.

However, one of the really weak points of this system is that you will have to search for the stations that has it and in Penang, there is only one NGV station! But I believe that once more people opt to convert their vehicles, Petronas will see this and decide to open up more NGV stations to get more business.

Otherwise, we are all screwed.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 9:10 am and is filed under Current Events, Just life.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.