E20-fuelled vehicle sales to exceed 200,000 units

Thai drivers’ enthusiasm for cost-saving alternative fuels is expected to push sales of passenger cars fuelled by E20 beyond the forecast of 100,000 units this year. Vallop Tiasiri, president of the Thailand Automotive Institute, said sales of E20 vehicles were now expected to exceed 200,000 in 2008, dominating the compact and mid-sized passenger car segments. Kurujit Nakornthap, deputy permanent secretary of the Energy Ministry, said brisk sales of E20 cars underlined the success of government measures to promote alternative fuels. Sales of E20, which is six baht (US$0.18) a liter cheaper than premium petrol, have reached 45,000 liters per day at 1,000 out of 4,500 petrol stations nationwide. Sales of NGV (natural gas for vehicles) have also jumped, from 25,000 tons per day (tpd) in 2006 to 73,000 tpd at present, with the number of stations selling the gas expected to reach 247 in July. The current 200 stations selling NGV are not enough to serve increasing demand, said Suparat Sirisuwannangkura, president of the Thai Automotive Industry Association. (May 19, 2008)