duel fuel cars-any views?

MarkyMarkD

Believing that the Govt won't increase tax on LPG significantly "because it is green" is rather too optimistic. If take-up of LPG increased in any significant way, you can be damn sure that the duty on LPG would rise as there would be a huge fall in revenue otherwise.

tonys_3

Not sure if Markymarkd was referring to my posting or earlier ones on fuel duty.

I am not naive enough to believe that duty would not rise on LPG.At present the
duty on LPG is 4.5p per litre,whilst petrol and diesel are around 50p per litre plus
vat at 13p per litre.Indeed duty would have to rise to make up any shortfall.But the underlying cost of LPG would not be anything like the cost of petrol.
I have just finished reading an article that suggeste £4 PER LITREfor it in the coming years.

However,at least there would be LPG available as opposed to probably having to queue for petrol and diesel.

MarkyMarkD

I'm not sure that the pre-duty cost of LPG is "nothing like" the cost of petrol, as you suggest. Duty on petrol is 47.1p per litre, so of the pump price of (around) 90p, that's 76.6p excluding VAT, or around 29.5p pre-duty and pre-VAT.

LPG is (I understand) around 38ppl, so 32.3p excluding VAT, or 27.8p pre-duty and pre-VAT.

Pretty much the same. And LPG provides less MPG than petrol (slightly) and diesel (greatly).

LPG is *only* viable because of the tax breaks. And that makes it a risky decision as those breaks might go at any time, destroying the additional value (if any) of an LPG-using vehicle.

tonys_3

I am sorry if I did not make myself clear.I was not talking about the current duty
free price [where I accept that petrol here is amongst the cheapest in Europe].I was
referring to a time when oil will be hitting in excess of $100 a barrel.Then the underlying price of LPG will be considerably less than that of petrol.

owey

Once they get enough people on LPG you watch the price of it go up and up and up. We had an artic LPG on demo and found no savings at all, demo has gone back now and no plans to buy them.

tonys_3

I am not sure that LPG has been too successful on lorries so far but quite a few bus
companies have converted.
Perhaps your trial was a few months ago when diesel was cheaper?Your company may regret their choice in the not so distant future..Especially as artics only tend to get 7 to 10 miles to the gallon.

As for the red herring about the cost going up-it will take a long time before
LPG taxes come anywhere near that of petrol and diesel.