PTT will promote NGV loans
PTT Plc is trying to raise the number of natural-gas-powered vehicles (NGVs) by joining hands with Thanachart Bank to lend money at low interest rates to motorists and corporations.
The move came after a report that NGV-modified cars currently number only 20,000, well short of the 50,000 units targeted by the end of this year. Modifying engines is expensive and some car owners may be loathe to fork out the thousands of baht to have it done. PTT Plc yesterday signed an agreement with Thanachart Bank to float loans for modifying engines from petrol-powered to natural-gas-powered. The loan is aimed at customers of the bank, which has more than 50,000 accounts. Thanachart Bank hopes to make Bt1 billion in NGV-modification loans. Under the conditions, the bank loans will carry interest rates of not more than 5 per cent annually. For corporations, the interest rate will be not more than 4 per cent annually. The period of the loans will not exceed 60 months. Chitrapongse Kwangsukstith, senior executive vice president of PTT's exploration, production and gas business group, said the high expenses for changing engines from petrol to natural gas, especially in large vehicles or trucks, is a main cause for NGVs not catching on more. Chitrapongse said that to modify an engine to use natural gas in addition to a petrol-driven system costs as much as Bt200,000. For a diesel car, the expense is Bt40,000. Buying a new NGV-retrofitted car costs around Bt700,000. He said that PTT had tried to help get loans to owners of large vehicles to modify their engines by joining hands with eight financial institutions. But many restrictions caused a delay making loans. Previously, PTT itself had offered loans for modifying engines and buying NGV-driven cars with interest rates of around a high 10 per cent annually. There were a large number of interested customers who wanted the loans, Chitrapongse said, but to date it has only floated Bt100 million in such loans. NGV prices will remain at Bt8.5 per kilogram until December next year, he said, adding that though prices were higher, PTT would maintain them at not more than 50 per cent of diesel prices. He said that since PTT had solved recurring problems arising from modifying engines to NGV, the number of such vehicles had been on the rise.
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