LPG is the greener, cleaner and cheaper fuel alternative
MANILA, Philippines—If you need to burn hard-earned money to feed your car and make it run, why not take your cue from the fuel that’s cooking your next meal? It’s easy to remember these three letters: LPG, and it’s equally easy to realize the ton of money you can save by using liquefied petroleum gas on your car. If you look around for auto LPG refilling stations in the metropolis, you will find that the price of a liter of LPG is nearly half (around P28 or P29) of the prevailing price of the same amount of regular unleaded gas. It doesn’t take a scientist to compute the obvious savings.
Plus, LPG has been commonly used to fuel automobiles in Europe after World War 2 particularly in Italy and Holland, and are now used in motor vehicles all around the world.
So, we now come to puzzling numbers. According to the Department of Energy, there are more than 18,731 registered taxis running on LPG in the country. That represents a piddling percentage of the total number of cars running around today, even if we only take into account just Metro Manila figures. The Land Transportation Office says it’s still working on consolidating figures of private vehicles converted to LPG. Still, it doesn’t take an expert statistician to observe that Filipino motorists aren’t lining up in droves at the LPG conversion shops. Despite the guaranteed savings in fuel, the Filipino motorist isn’t yet biting into LPG, and the local auto LPG industry still depends on those hardy taxis to survive.
Now why is this so?
Janet Capricho, officer in charge and division chief for alternative fuels, offers an explanation. She revealed that many LPG conversion shops have closed shop because of poor after-sales service (e.g. no technicians, low build and installation standards). The Department of Trade and Industry’s Bureau of Product Standards (under OIC-assistant director Cirila Botor) offers another reason: Of the 48 accredited LPG conversion shops, all but four of them are based in the National Capital Region, which says something about the accessibility of LPG conversion in the rest of the country.
So there are the two barriers preventing the LPG industry from truly taking off: The bad rep from bad installers, and the Manila-centric location of accredited installers. And we’re not yet talking about the accessibility of auto LPG refilling stations, which offers yet another barrier.
But for those who have made the big switch from gasoline to LPG at the right installers, the rewards are immediate. Reynaldo B. Josafat, a 41-year-old taxi driver, has been running his Toyota Corolla on LPG for three years. While lining up at an LPG refilling station in Makati, he disclosed to Inquirer Motoring that he was spending a mere P800 a day for LPG, compared to the P1,600 he had to cough out for a 250-km daily drive.
And if you think LPG is a low-class fuel meant just for blue-collar drivers, then meet Cielo R. Fregil, 39, a company manager who, three years ago, installed an LPG system into her 4-liter BMW 740i V8 series—matching her big sedan’s 90-liter gas tank with a 72-liter torroidal LPG tank. She quickly did away with the non-believers when she said that even Queen Elizabeth’s Rolls Royce runs on LPG—using the same kit that’s in her Bimmer—the Italian-made Tartarini.
Thus, pre-LPG, Cielo used to spend up to P22,000 a month on gasoline as her luxury sedan guzzled up a liter every 4 km around the city. Post-LPG installation, Cielo now spends only P11,900 a month for the same distance. That’s more shopping and grocery money for this career woman.
“I enjoy the same comfort and power of a BMW 7 Series at almost half the price (of making it run),” she said.
Love’s her own
Cielo isn’t your ordinary LPG motorist, though. She is, in fact, the managing director of GATES, which is owned by Ambienergy Enterprises and the Autohub group of Willy Tee Ten. GATES stands for Global Ambient Hi-Technology Systems Inc that carries the Tartarini LPG conversion and installation system, which, by the way, only touts ECE 67R01—the highest global safety standard for LPG and CNG (compressed natural gas) auto installation systems.
“LPG kits that comply with ECE 67R01 are tested for a number of safety features. For one, LPG tanks with this standard are filled only up to 80 percent. And if, for example, there’s a sudden release of the gas because a line was cut, the LPG tank automatically shuts off and your fuel system just shifts to gasoline,” she explained. She also stressed that with Tartarini, the entire LPG system is “fine-tuned” to achieve “optimal fuel efficiency,” meaning that the LPG fuel system will approximate the fuel mileage achieved by the vehicle if it were running on gasoline.
GATES service centers and LPG installation stations are available at all Autohub dealers or at its main office at E. Rodriguez Sr. Avenue (near Judge Jimenez Street), Quezon City. Private vehicles can be installed with LPG at all Autohub dealers. Autohub, incidentally, is also a dealership of the Ford, Hyundai, Nissan, Mini and Vespa brands. However, only Autohub’s Ford, Hyundai and Nissan dealerships offer conversions and offer limited vehicle warranties for LPG conversion.
The initial cash outlay for LPG conversion doesn’t come cheap at GATES. For a 4-cylinder car, the conversion and installation can cost from P48,000 to P55,000 depending on the tank capacity and engine displacement. For 6-cylinder cars, rates can go from P73,000 to P79,000. For V8 engines, it can go up to P89,000.
The warranty for the LPG kit is one year. Cielo said GATES is considering adding another year to make the warranty last for two years.
LPGs in the tanks of luxury
LPGs in the tanks of luxury
Since 2005, GATES has been installing LPG kits on taxis and private vehicles. It has installed LPG kits on a Hummer H3 V8 6.0 liter, on a Mercedes Benz S600 V12 engine, on some Lexus SUVs, on Toyota Land Cruisers, and even on a drift car for DMF. She revealed that the company has installed LPG kits on Chiz Escudero’s and Gilbert Remulla’s Chevrolet Suburbans. Car enthusiasts Sammy Liuson, Atoy Llave and Benedict Go had their units installed at GATES.
The proof is in the pudding, so to speak. So Cielo handed the GATES’ service vehicle—a 2007 Nissan X-Trail—to Inquirer Motoring for a spin. The odometer read a mere 15,000 km of wear and tear, and the casa-only maintenance was understandably impeccable, ideal conditions for a good-as-new ride. To the untrained eye, nothing looked unusual on the X-Trail. And even when one popped open the hood, he or she wouldn’t readily notice the fuel line detour. The doughnut-shaped torroidal tank is also inconspicuously placed right where the spare tire should have been.
Inside the X-Trail, at the driver’s side, the only indicator for the LPG line is a switch at the lower left corner of the front panel, where it also showed if the SUV was on gasoline or LPG (as soon as the LPG system is installed, the engine runs on LPG as a default). Only when the LPG tank falls below 5 percent pressure does the fuel system automatically shift to gasoline. A manual override is possible—a button will force the system to use gasoline instead of LPG (then again, why would you?). There’s an incessant beeping sound (audible but not irritating, and can be turned off by the push of the button) when the LPG tank is on empty and the fuel line has shifted to gasoline.
The system is set up so that upon cold starts, easier-to-burn gasoline would be used, and when the system reads that the RPM has climbed to 1,500, LPG will be used.
Although no dynamometer tests were performed on the old X-Trail, Cielo felt no loss of power with the conversion of the X-Trail into LPG. And Inquirer Motoring agrees when the SUV went up to speed along the SLEX at about the same acceleration rate as that of gas-powered X-Trail. In terms of fuel mileage, the usual 6 km per liter combined city and highway runs on gasoline didn’t deviate much when the system shifted to LPG. What makes the difference is the pump price of LPG versus gasoline. Thus, a 6-km run that would have cost the motorist P56 (even up to P60 if he or she used high-octane fuel) now only cost P28 or P29, effectively doubling the fuel mileage of the X-Trail. And like all GATES-installed kits, the one on the X-Trail is homologated—compatible and tuned to the original fuel trims of the gas engines.
Cielo explained that the reason vehicles with accurately installed LPG kits are getting the same power and fuel mileage as when they are running on gasoline is that LPG kits have their own computer boxes that read the same signals as those coming to and from the gasoline fuel injector systems. The LPG computer box also reads the proper air and fuel mixture.
LPG for the ‘King’
LPG for the ‘King’
Cielo estimates that GATES has been installing 100 kits every month, that number being reached recently with the spike in fuel prices brought about by the uncertainty of oil imports coming from a politically unstable Middle East.
Cielo also revealed that GATES is poised to transform the “king of the road” into a quieter, more environment-friendly beast: It has plans to convert a certain number of diesel-powered jeepneys to LPG (with new LPG engines); the details of which, however, have not yet been finalized.
Right now, however, the ones reaping the most benefits are the taxi drivers. “Instead of them spending P2,000 a day for gasoline, they only pay P900 a day. Some private car owners who pay P500 a day for gasoline would gladly shell out just P250 so they would still have P250 to spend for Starbucks,” Cielo laughed.
“From the point of view of my business, I become happy every time there’s a hike in fuel prices since I’m not really affected. And I get angry when there’s even a 50-cent increase in LPG prices. I mean, LPG is just a natural by-product of gasoline.”
Easy payment system
GATES is now making it easier for cash-strapped motorsts to make the big switch. It will soon offer easy-payment system—six to 12 month-installments with zero interest--for LPG conversions.
“Once you’ve finished paying for your monthly installments, everything else is savings already,” Cielo said.
On top of that, LPG is clean-burning, Cielo stressed. It produces no sulfur, no aromatics, no harmful components that dirty the engines. It has no carbon, and the engine oil’s usable life becomes actually longer. Just ask your grandmas and your grandpas. That 30-year-old gas range of theirs is still up and running, right?
(To start your journey on completely “rolling back” your own fuel costs, log on to www.global-ambient.com or ask cielo@global-ambient.com.)
Reaction:
But now the because of the discovery of greener, cleaner, and cheaper fuel it will help also people to save money for other needs to be bought. It is a great news for every filipino. They will spend less on fuels but equal amount of fuels that are bought and spend more for foods and other needs.
For me this news is a great news because as my self i usually drive my fathers car and does not pay any gasoline in using this. Because of this i would be less worried on the fuel that my father uses. It will also help my parents to save more or buy more needs or if lucky enough it may buy wants in life.
