[JagMan]

Which is why i suppose i've always heard that one way to maximize mileage is to get tank fills at 6 in the morning so that the petrol you get is potentially at the highest density it can get to during the day.

Would it be cost effective to engineer retail vending units to dispense temperature corrected Kilolitres?

[jassi_jeeper]

The government must encourage clean fuels like CNG and LPG. We Indians tend to run towards cheap fuel. So much pollution ( noise and air both ) can be controlled by making CNG and LPG attractive price wise as compared to Petrol and Diesel. In my city ( Chandigarh ) , LPG autos have made a difference to the air quality and sound pollution level as compared to the earlier diesel autos.

[k_nitin_r]

Originally Posted by varshar

With creeping monthly increases of 50 paisa, a single digit difference looks quite possible within just 1.5-2 years.

When the difference between petrol and diesel disappears, getting a petrol-powered vehicle would be the preferred choice considering that vehicles with a diesel engine are sold at a premium and that petrol vehicles can be modified to run on LPG or CNG.

Is there any chance an electric motor and batteries would be available to retrofit into a petrol engine vehicle without removing the petrol engine, turning it into a petrol-electric hybrid? With free electricity in the rural countryside, that's perhaps the cheapest energy source for the so-called 'aam aadmi' (I wonder what the politicians' definition of the 'aam aadmi' is).

[rahul4321]

In Gujarat we were already paying 63 rupees per every kilogram of CNG till February'13 (this is when i sold my Santro CNG and bought a Bolero). Thereafter the price went up till 65 at one point of time whereas my Bolero drank diesel at 58 rupees. Gujarat was set to see a price reduction upto 15-18 rupees per kilogram in CNG as a result of the court case (link was mentioned in this thread somewhere) but the two main providers of CNG in Gujarat are now claiming that the reduction will be much less since CNG prices are increasing from the source.

When i bought my Santro in 2009, i used to fill up CNG at 22 rupees per kg. 250 Rupees and my tank was full. When i stopped filling it in Feb'13; the price was 63 rupees. Almost a 200% rise. Unfathomable!!!

[9thsphinx]

This was bound to happen. There's almost always a reciprocal effect to decisions based on econopolitics. We, in Gujarat, were paying the highest rate for every kilo of CNG up until now. With a price reduction here, the prices were bound to go up somewhere! Taxes on alternative fuels are one of the major sources of income of the Government.

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by JagMan

Which is why i suppose i've always heard that one way to maximize mileage is to get tank fills at 6 in the morning so that the petrol you get is potentially at the highest density it can get to during the day.

Would it be cost effective to engineer retail vending units to dispense temperature corrected Kilolitres?

Yes the time of the day when petrol/diesel is densest would be 1-2 hours prior to sunrise (that's when minimum temp of the day happens).

Would it be cost effective for temp corrected stuff - no. The point is that it is very easy to measure the litres (volumetric flow) but it is very difficult to measure the kg (mass flow). The equipment for mass flow is more expensive by an order of magnitude.

So what they used to do (about a decade back) is measure the tanker's dispensed volume (by using a dipstick before and after dispensing). Check the temperature. Refer a printed table - arrive at temperature corrected volume (I guess corrected to 25 deg C, or was it 15 deg C?).

The same practice was followed at the bunk's underground storage.

You can effectively install a small PLC (programmable logic controller) which does this automatically (even for the fuel dispensers) and thus the customer's get temp corrected litres (or perhaps we should start labeling it in kg).

In my opinion, unless there is a govt order on it, no one would do it on his own.

[arunr]

At one point of time there was no commercial value for CNG. It was burnt off while extracting crude oil by the oil companies.

Seems like anything that has some commercial usage keeps getting expensive over time.

Wonder at this price what would be the rationale for someone to convert his car to CNG, compromising boot space, initial investment and compromised performance.

[LithiumSunset]

I think its a death knell for the CNG enabled engine.

I've tracked the price of the three fuels. The 10 year average increase in of Petrol price is 7.74%, that for diesel is 9.9% and for CNG (4 year data) it is an unprecedented 23.3%.

At this rate I expect CNG to catch up with Diesel somewhere in the middle of 2014 and will positively overtake Petrol in 2015.

I gambled on the CNG variant in Dec. 2010 and I lost!

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by LithiumSunset

I think its a death knell for the CNG enabled engine.

I've tracked the price of the three fuels. The 10 year average increase in of Petrol price is 7.74%, that for diesel is 9.9% and for CNG (4 year data) it is an unprecedented 23.3%.

At this rate I expect CNG to catch up with Diesel somewhere in the middle of 2014 and will positively overtake Petrol in 2015.

I gambled on the CNG variant in Dec. 2010 and I lost!

In a free market the prices of a commodity indicate the level of desirability (assuming the supplies are more or less constant - as it is in case of Oil & Gas).

Fuel wise (for process industries and power gen) - CNG is the best fuel. You can produce maximum amount of Hydrogen, you get high calorific value. You don't need to have as elaborate exhaust scrubbing/processing etc as for others since it burns very clean.

It is but obvious that NG will become a very high demand commodity (as can been seen by the price trend $/MMBTU).
However there is a limit to this.

If the CNG prices increase without any restrains, the net demand will start falling - and people will start venturing (back) towards oily fuel. This mechanism will always ensure a balance and no commodity would actually be priced significantly above the other.

Also due to increase in price of NG, unconventional means (as I mentioned earlier like Shale, Coal bed etc) gets viable, and keep the prices in check by increasing the supply side.

[dhruvtanwar]

Truly appreciate the views of BHPian's on this post: its been both informative and educational on according some premeditated thought to a fuel strategy when buying a car.
For "aam" people, I reckon that the magic figure of owning a car is about INR 2 / km in fuel costs. Anything over that gets uncomfortable, and once it crosses around INR 4.50 or INR 5 / km to fuel your wheels, people look at alternatives. That's what shifted the market from petrol to Diesel, and to CNG; personally I believe that the days of the internal combustion engine (at this rate) are numbered, unless we figure out a way to use hydrogen safely to drive our wheels, or maybe switch to electrically propelled vehicles (yo! bikes and the Reva/E2O from Mahindra may be the first generation of the next big thing). But by the time that happens, I'm sure at least my generation would have driven into the sunset, many times over

[mints21]

CNG Prices have seen a drastic cut of Rs.15 for the first time. It is being considered as a Poll Sop and has nothing to do with any other thing.

The news brings a lot of Cheer to the owners of CNG vehicles, who were burdened with a sudden increase of Rs.4.50 a few months back.