VietNamNet Bridge – Petrol saving devices and alternative clean fuels have become the choice of many consumers and service providers, since the petrol price has increased dramatically.

The sharp petrol price increase to 21,300 dong per liter has forced people with  personal means of transportation to ponder on how to save fuel. The individuals, who use motorbikes, will have to pay an additional sum of 300,000 dong a month, while the sum of money car users have to pay more will be even bigger.

Even small sized cars like Kia Morning, with a 1.1L engine, will cost the owners a lot of money. On average, the cars’ owners have to fill up tanks with petrol every 10 days, if they travel about 20 kilometers a day. If so, they will have to pay an additional 600,000 dong.

Meanwhile, the people, who drive the cars with the engines with the cylinder capacity of 2.0L and more, will have to pay 1.5 million dong a month more to fill in the 50 liter tank to maintain the scheduled travel. Especially, Land Cruiser or Toyota Lexus 470 LX, 570 LX, with 80-90 liter tanks, will require car owners to spend 400,000 dong more to fill up.

Therefore, many people have decided to use public means of transports, such as buses, to go to the offices. Many others are now going to work by bicycle, reducing traveling, or seeking non-petrol fuel products. Especially, many people have decided to equip their personal vehicles with fuel saving devices.

Liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG proves to be a good choice to replace petrol. Nguyen Thu Trang, Deputy General Director of PV Gas City, said that her company is installing LPG filling stations and the LPG kits on taxis for Mai Linh taxi firm; She says that LPG is a really good alternative now that petrol is nearly expensive as gold. Though the gas price is still high, car drivers would be able to save 1.2-1.3 million dong a month if they travel 180 kilometers a day. Meanwhile, the oil price remains unpredictable due to the fighting in Libya.

According to Huynh Kim Tuoc, Director of the HCM City Energy Saving Center, the use of LPG will allow one to reduce 20 percent of NO2 if compared with petrol, and 60 percent of carbon emissions. Meanwhile, people will be able to save 30 percent of expenses when using LPG instead of petrol.

The use of alternative non-petrol fuel products has a big significance in the transportation sector, where fuel gobbles up 30-40 percent of the total expenses. Transportation firms have also been encouraged to use clean fuel in order to ease the environmental pollution.

Many vehicle users have also paid attention to using E5 ecofuels, even though E5 only helps a little to reduce expenses. Currently, the E5 petrol’s price is only 500 dong per liter cheaper than A92 petrol. E5 has been marketed by PV Oil and Petech for a long time and has been available in 10 big cities namely Hanoi, HCM City, Hai Phong, Can Tho, Da Nang and Hai Duong.

However, the consumption level of E5 remains modest: only 25,000 liters of E5 are sold every day. The problem is that there are only 40 E5 filling stations nationwide, and this kind of petrol is used only by motorbikes. Nguyen Ngoc Binh, a businessman who lives in Cau Giay district in Hanoi and owns a Toyota Altis, said that he has never used E5 because there are not many filling stations in the city.

Meanwhile, other car users are not interested in using E5 because car manufacturers have not released any announcements on that encourage use of ET. They fear that their cars’ maintenance will be refused if they use E5 without consulting with manufacturers.

When talking with the press, representatives of the car manufacturers now present in Vietnam all said in principle, there is no basic change between normal petrol and E5. Engines will need to be improved in case ecofuel E20 is used.

PetroVietnam is carrying out three projects on making biofuels and people have every reason to believe that when the projects become operational, the “coverage area” of biofuel will be enlarged.

Tuyet Ngan