LPG conversions deserve more financial encouragement from government

Various European cities are considering banning vehicles with diesel engines from their urban centres because air quality is increasingly becoming an environmental, health and political issue. The alternative – cleaner – option is gas-powered vehicles.

With over 4.3 million cars, Turkey has the largest number of gas/LPG-powered vehicles in the world. The Turkish market is growing steadily, with a nine per cent annual increase. LPG is also most popular in Poland, followed by Italy, where 6.5 per cent of the country’s cars and trucks are powered by LPG – meaning more than 2.3 million cars in 2017.

From 2018, as part of London’s drive to reduce air pollution, all new taxi cabs the city will have to be zero-emission. On mainland Europe, the French government has established a new classification of vehicles according to their level of air-pollutant emissions, and autogas-operated vehicles have been recognised as being among the least polluting.

Air quality concerns are en- couraging governments at both national and local levels to incentivise the use of cars converted to run on LPG. In Italy, incentives include €500 benefit on Euro 3-4 personal vehicles, €750 for Euro 3-4-5 commercial vehicles and €750 for commercial vehicles converted from diesel. This has led to a 26.5 per cent increase in LPG cars in 2017 over the previous year.

For 2018, the Ministry for Transport, Infrastructure & Capital Projects, in conjunction with Transport Malta, launched another scheme to incentivise vehicle owners to convert their vehicle’s fuel system to Autogas/LPG. Subject to a number of conditions, the grant amounts to €200 which will be given on conversion to Autogas/LPG.

Considering that it is a lowCO² fuel that is inexpensive and extremely low in exhaust pollution, it is taking a long time for LPG to attract interest in Malta. According to Transport Malta, there are only just over 1,300 cars running on LPG. While an incentive of €200 is better than having to depend solely on an individual’s concern for the environment, and can be seen as just a token reward, most believe that an incentive scheme similar to the one in Italy would encourage a significantly higher number of owners to convert their cars in a short period of time.

The mayors of some localities with a high density of traffic are increasingly raising their concerns about the exhaust pollution that is not only damaging to health but also to historic buildings and urban core areas.

Time and time again, LPG proves to be a credible – in terms of performance – and much cheaper motoring option. Such low running-costs make a very compelling argument for the choice of LPG-powered cars.

When drivers opt for converting their cars to LPG, the car will be subject to a technical inspection. When it is ready for conversion, the LPG tank and the petrol tank are fitted together with the two sets of fuel lines, while a switch is fitted under the dashboard for the driver to switch the vehicle from petrol to LPG or vice-versa, depending on which mode the driver opts to use.

The conversion process costs around €1,200 depending on the type of engine and electronics involved. Due to the fuel savings of about 50 per cent, most drivers will make a return on investment in less than two years (driving 35,000 kms a year). Moreover, year on year, the local supplier – Autoliquigas – is developing a network of autogas stations across Malta and soon there will be one in Gozo. More autogas-powered cars will generate a greater demand for easily available LPG services and, in turn, the LPG station network will be further extended to meet this growing demand.

Year Locality Name of Station 2012 Luqa/MIA Topcar Services Ltd 2013 Rabat J Micallef Service Station 2014 St Andrews Wembley Service Station 2016 Naxxar VC Service Station 2017 Mellieħa Santa Maria Service Station 2018 Gozo Attard Service Station

Table 1: Autoliquigas is building an LPG refuelling network across Malta and Gozo

While increasing the perception of autogas as a high performance motor fuel through sustained education campaigns is important, in European countries it has been found time and time again that what substantially drives the increase in autogas-run cars are government or regional monetary benefits and incentives, including favourable fuel taxes, traffic regulations where access to urban cores is seriously restricted to non-autogas operated cars, and incentives for new LPG-powered vehicles, and car conversions to LPG.