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Published on July 30, 2007

PTT is lending a hand, and in conjunction with financial institutions is offering Bt10,000 off the Bt59,000 price of installing an NGV (natural-gas vehicle) device before September 30, as long as the equipment is paid for in cash.

Loans are available from Thanachart Bank (Tbank), Aeon Thana Sinsap (Thailand) and Krungthai Card (KTC).

Tbank offers Bt63,000 installation loans over three years. From October 1 applicants will have to pay the usual 5 per cent per annum.

KTC will lend at zero interest for 10 months if you pay by credit card.

Drivers can mix and match offers, and interest is subsidised by PTT, the country's largest energy business, which plans to expand its 120 natural-gas stations to 270 by year's end.

The gas is colourless, odourless and lighter than air and burns cleanly, thus being safe and environmentally friendly. More pertinently, it is cheap.

To promote it in Thailand, PTT has made it half the price of diesel or 40 per cent cheaper than petrol and 20 per cent cheaper than subsidised liquid petroleum gas.

If a litre of 91-octane petrol at Bt15.49 or 95-octane at Bt16.49 takes you 11 kilometres, a litre of natural gas at Bt7.65 will drive the same car 10km.

Office worker Chamnan Noisamran, 36, converted to natural gas two months ago and got a discount from PTT on the equipment, which incidentally allows him to switch fuels back and forth if he needs to. He was swayed by the promotion campaign, but his chief aim was to save on fuel.

Since the change he has spent Bt2,220 on natural gas and driven 4,100km, or Bt0.54/km. He used to buy Bt6,000-Bt7,000 worth of petrol a month.

The only snag he sees is that natural-gas stations are still few and far between. He recommends that NGV motorists plan their journeys well.

Somruedi  Banchongduang

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