Car & Bike LPG Vs. CNG

M

moshel

Adept
Friends,

I own a Indica Xeta V2 Petrol 2007 model. Although its 6.5 years old, its been sparingly used. Have clocked only 7500 kms.

Now the problem is that even though I feel like driving the car more often, its poor average forces me to keep it at home and hence I don't take it to office.

So just wanted your opinion on whether I should go for a LPG kit or CNG kit. The person who suggested LPG kit was quite impressed by it because he is himself using it. Has taken a santro fitted with LPG kit 2-3 times to Mumbai from Ahmedabad.

He says LPG is more beneficial: 1) kit is cheaper, 22k vs. 65k for CNG 2) you can use home cylinder to fill it, hence fuel would be cheaper 3) it has a bigger fuel carrying capacity.

Mostly it will be used for city driving. But occasionally I might take it for a long ride.

What are the cons in your opinion? Should I go for LPG kit? what are the dangers?

Thanks
Moshel
 
I myself own a Petrol + LPG spark. Mine is company installed though. I can tell you the difference between LPG and petrol as i have some experience on it. First an foremost is that if you are going to fill LPG from legitimate sources (pumps) the running cost is almost the same for LPG and petrol as my spark gives 18 KMPL on petrol and 13 KMPL on LPG. Doing the math, on petrol, 1 KM costs me around 4 Rs. while LPG costs 3.8 Rs. This will drastically reduce if you use domestic LPG. domestic LPG though cheaper, might land you into trouble as it is illegal. Also the method that is applied to fill is not safe.
Second thing is you will notice a difference in power. it will be not much, around 2-5 PS less in LPG.
Thirdly LPG stations are fewer compared to CNG.
 
CNG without a doubt. There would not be enough savings with LPG to justify a decrease in performance and initial investment on the kit. CNG kit though more expensive than LPG (65k is a bit exaggerated though) would be more cost effective considering your average goes up by 5 to 6/KG as compared to Petrol and also CNG is very cheap in Mumbai and Delhi.

If you are in Gujarat, it's a different ball game altogether since CNG is ridiculously expensive there.
 
LPG being an explosive gas, it would be smarter not to go for it. Also, during routine checks if RTO/ traffic police guys find you using domestic LPG cylinder, fines are huge and LPG filling commercial pumps are scarce as compared to CNG pumps.
CNG kit is very safe as compared to LPG as the gas is not explosive.
CNG kits are of various types, open loop/closed loop- sequential/non sequential.
Since you have a tata indica, i would suggest you to go for a open/closed loop non-sequential CNG kit which is much cheaper than sequential kit.
Consider a power drop of around 10% minimum on CNG/LPG whichever kits you fit.
i am using a m-sequent sequential closed loop CNG kit on my 2010 Honda city i-VTEC and the cost per km is roughly around 1.8 to 2 INR per km with AC on in the car.
also remember you need to keep your vehicle well maintained and get it timely serviced if you go for CNG or LPG kits as the engine wear and tear happens at a much higher rate as compared to petrol since the gasses are highly compressed and our engines are manufactured for lesser compressed fuels.

Also can you please tell which kit was offered to you for 65K.
i have got my m-sequent kit fitted along with 2.5k RTO registration charges including Mahanagar Gas registration for 52.5k

you can get a non-sequential kit open loop kit for around 30-35k approx, even the closed loop kit for somewhere around the same price or a small premium above 35k(not sure though).
 
Thanks all for the inputs.

Until now I haven't asked around the city for the prices. But 65K is what I have heard is the price of a company fitted CNG kit i.e. if I get it fitted from a Tata showroom/service center. Which is also I believe a sequential one.

Another interesting thing I came across is a online calculator....http://www.sagas.co.in/NCalculator/Index.php................This site suggests that I will get an average of 28.8 in CNG...lol!!!

A minus point for me in CNG is that it costs Rs. 65-66 a kilo and increasing.......comparatively petrol costs 74.05 and "Legit" LPG costs around Rs. 52.... So unless CNG gives me a substantial cost saving.....

But yes, have read at a couple of places that CNG gives a better average than LPG...For eg. I am getting around 10-12 kms around the city, so can I expect around 16-18 in CNG? and in LPG it would be like 13-14?
 
moshel said:
Thanks all for the inputs.

Until now I haven't asked around the city for the prices. But 65K is what I have heard is the price of a company fitted CNG kit i.e. if I get it fitted from a Tata showroom/service center. Which is also I believe a sequential one.

Another interesting thing I came across is a online calculator....http://www.sagas.co.in/NCalculator/Index.php................This site suggests that I will get an average of 28.8 in CNG...lol!!!

A minus point for me in CNG is that it costs Rs. 65-66 a kilo and increasing.......comparatively petrol costs 74.05 and "Legit" LPG costs around Rs. 52.... So unless CNG gives me a substantial cost saving.....

But yes, have read at a couple of places that CNG gives a better average than LPG...For eg. I am getting around 10-12 kms around the city, so can I expect around 16-18 in CNG? and in LPG it would be like 13-14?
Click to expand...
You should ideally get between 18 to 20 km mileage per KG of CNG.
Also where does CNG cost 65 to 66 per kg??? Here in Mumbai its 35.xx per kg. Please note that if you don't munch around 2000 to 3000 km per month, and considering 65/kg CNG cost, it doesn't make sense to go for CNG as you will never be able to save the amount invested in CNG kit. My city's monthly fuel expenditure used to come around 16 to 18k when I was using it on petrol @13 to 13.5 kmpl mileage. But now on CNG, it has come down to 4k roughly for the entire month with same amount of kilometers travelled daily which would recover my CNG kit investment of 52.5k in about 5months max...
 
vriship said:
Also where does CNG cost 65 to 66 per kg???
Click to expand...

Ahmedabad....
Gujarat govt. has tried many times to get the CNG supplied here at the same rates as Mumbai and Delhi but the central govt. isn't budging. Gujarat govt. also won the case in supreme court and the SC gave orders to central government for the same. But even after the order and one more notice from SC to central govt. still the situation is the same...:(

No matter how much I try I don't think I can clock more than 1000 kms a month (my commute to office is 10 kms one way)...But upon back-calculating, if I go 1000 kms on petrol, it will cost me Rs. 7k++ of petrol. Which is too much...
 
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