Soaring fuel prices spark LPG boom

The spiralling cost of standard fuels is driving a ten-fold increase in the number of people asking about conversion to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

While individual car owners and public bodies such as the police and councils try to identify ways of cutting fuel bills, the option of LPG is becoming increasingly popular.

Cromer business Jaymic Systems, which provides conversions and distributes equipment nationwide for other businesses involved in conversion, has been on the frontline of the peak in interest.

"We have gone from about 10 phone calls a week from people asking about conversions to about 100 a week," said company director Martyn Soer.

"The reasons are pretty simple, you can achieve an approximate 40pc saving in your fuel bill and reduce your carbon footprint by around 20pc. The emission gains don't seem to be the thing which gets people to do this. It is the financial saving which makes the real difference. When there is a financial crisis, people look to how they can save and going to LPG is an obvious option."

A one-off bill of between £1,500 and £2,000 is the typical cost, but Mr Soer said the easier way to view the cost was to realise that at a yearly 15,000 mileage, it would take 18 months to "get your money back".

Further savings can be had, with the London congestion charge allowing certain vehicles to drive into the charge areas free if they run on LPG and many permit-parking schemes in cities across the country also operating similar discounts.

The reason even more people were not going got for LPG conversion was because the process had a historic - but now incorrect - reputation as having serious flaws, said Mr Soer.

"The old systems weren't up to scratch, there were problems of unreliability, people said you had to service the systems all the time and the set-ups could damage the exhaust valves. But the technology now means it is way ahead of where it was just half a dozen years ago and these problems simply don't happen."

It was vital to use professional converters approved by the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association, said Mr Soer. He added that only petrol cars were suitable for conversion, and although diesel technology existed, it wasn't a route he would suggest.

The current price of LPG is about 53p a litre, although using the fuel leads to a loss of about 15pc economy per litre.

About 130,000 vehicles in the UK operate on LPG. The figure in Italy is 1.6 million and in Germany a million.

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