Soaring fuel prices drive motorists to go in for LPG or electric systems
Thousands of motorists are flocking to automotive service shops to fit their cars with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) systems or electricity in a bid to escape the impact of rising oil prices.
Energy Reform president Surasak Nittiwat said the company has witnessed 200 per cent year-on-year growth as many people have used his company's services to modify their cars to support LPG.
However, he said people who want to go in for the modification at his company have to wait at least one to two weeks due to insufficient components.
Meanwhile, EV Car (Thailand) managing director Paisan Tangyarit said a number of motorists are also interested in modifying their cars into electric vehicles amid the high oil prices.
He said electric cars are three times cheaper to operate than internal combustion engine vehicles and these modified vehicles have a range of more than 200 kilometres on a single charge.
However, Paisan said motorists who want to change to electric have to wait for one to three months due to service limitations.
Pajon Thongluea, owner of Pajon Service Ranong-Chumphon in Ranong province, noted that people have turned to LPG cars to escape the impact of rising oil prices and reduce the cost of living.
He said the modification to LPG costs between 16,000 and 40,000 baht depending on the system.
Pajon added that 80 per cent of modified cars were personal cars and 20 per cent were trucks.
As many as 1,249 cars which have dual compressed natural gas (CNG)-benzene systems were registered with the Department of Land Transport from January to May this year, followed by LPG-benzene cars (762) and cars which support only CNG (383).