Black economic empowerment company Kulani Africa Gas will open the first in a network of natural gas filling stations across South Africa on Sunday.
The first filling station will be at 343 Lansdowne Road in Cape Town.
Very few such gas stations exist in South Africa.
”The search for alternative fuel systems in the automotive industry has been going on for many years,” Kulani Africa Gas said in a statement on Tuesday.
”Rapid escalation of fuel prices in South Africa and an unstable exchange rate have resulted in unacceptably high petrol and diesel prices. The need for alternative fuel exists and is growing.”
It said Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) was being used extensively in the United States, Asia and Europe and in Australia almost one in every four vehicles had been converted to run on the gas.
LPG would save drivers money and would also play a large role in making South Africa’s air cleaner and healthier, Kulani said. Gas is a safe and cheap fuel for commuter vehicles, as an alternative to petrol or diesel.
”Kulani Gas will amount to a saving of 25% off the price of petrol, which translates to a saving of 40%if you take into account the tax on that,” said Kulani chief executive Vuyo Gcilishe.
He said the process of getting a vehicle fitted to run on gas as well as petrol, was a relatively simple one and cost-effective if one considered that it costs about a third less to run on gas.
Gcilishe said there were more than 120 000 registered minibus taxis providing transport to the bulk of South Africa’s commuters.
”If just this sector of the transport industry switched over, the effect on the environment alone would be remarkable. LPG is much ‘greener’ than both petrol and diesel,” he said.
Gcilishe said a small switch fitted next to the steering wheel allowed the driver to alternate between gas and petrol, so if the vehicle ran out of gas, the driver could switch back to petrol if there was no gas filling station nearby. – Sapa