Hi all,

 

One of the reasons I'm going with a Fabia Estate 110 over the alternatives (which were pretty much all bigger but diesel) is of course superb fuel economy.

 

Most of my driving will be at least partly along the A303 between Devon and London - It struck me there are at least 4/5 places to fill up on LPG along my route (between 55 - 69p per litre) - This caused me to do some research:

 

http://www.prinsautogas.com/articles/en-corporate-2008/vsi_di.html

http://www.prinsautogas.com/en/products/vsi_system/vsi_system.html

 

This system appears to be good quality - it uses a little petrol (5%) according to the brochure - I assume the car would start on petrol from cold and switch over when warm also - I've worked out that assuming I do 80% of my 12,000 miles / year on LPG (accounting for sometimes running out of LPG due to the modest-sized donut tank that would sit in the spare wheel well), I'd save something like 360 quid a year on fuel costs - I've shot an email over to the distributor asking about the the recommended system servicing schedule / costs in addition to the installation cost itself. Are people interested to hear what the sums work out to? Does anyone have any experience of a recent (2014ish onwards car converted to LPG using a similar setup) ??

 

A few other points:

 

1) I would be willing to rely on breakdown services in the event of a puncture - I haven't ever ( / yet) had to change a wheel at the side of the road in all my years of driving.

2) I believe the tank range would be around 300 miles - This could get annoying as in my case my Devon > London weekly commute is 150 miles each way! So I'd have to factor in a fill-up on each round trip when timing it.

3) Dacia has just announced they will sell factory-fitted LPG / bi-fuel versions of all their models in the UK later this year. This would certainly make me take a closer look at their range.

 

 

 

The price per litre is only part of the calculation as LPG has ~25% less enegy per unit volume.

Basically add on 25% to the costs of the LPG for a better comparison. 69 *1.25 = 86p per liter if equivalent to petrol

So at 45-50 mpg average we sould just take that to be 10 miles per litre to make the figures easier.

So a 40p(ish) saving per 10 miles traveled.

8000/10*0.4= £320 per year. Less if you can drive more efficiently.

If we then assume a £1000 cost to install (might be more, might be a little les)

You are basically driving for 3 years with no benefit before the £320 savings come into play.

I'm not sure this is cost effective.

 

Yes I forgot to add - The 360 quid saving I calculate was based on losing 20% fuel economy - This is what I have read you can expect. Also you get a tenner off your VED each year 🙂 

 

As to cost-effectiveness, that's entirely subjective according to how long you intend to keep the car - In my case, many years, so the estimated GBP 1250 installation cost (based on a quote for a 1.4 Superb) would take just under 3 1/2 years to repay, or just under 3 years if I made sure I always kept the LPG tank topped up - Although a long game it would still make sense to me on this basis.

 

The only remaining unknown other than an accurante installation cost is what is the servicing requirement / schedule / cost for the system.