Consumer confusion at the pump

Mike Devereux blames consumer reticence for dwindling sales of LPG-fuelled cars in Australia. But it's not the retail buyers in dealerships who are shy and retiring, it's a problem that starts on the typical service station forecourt.

Holden's Managing Director argues that few people are aware that filling an LPG tank from a service station bowser is no more difficult than filling up with petrol.

"We've gotta overcome the stigma associated with [LPG], we've gotta overcome the unknown of it — and then the resulting bias that exists because of those two things," Devereux said during the press conference for the launch of the vapour-injection LPG system for Commodore.

Taking a quick poll, Devereux established that very few people attending the press conference had ever filled an LPG vehicle's tank at a service station. Admittedly he was pretty safe in a room full of journalists. A poll of motoring journalists was bound to turn up the factoid that few had professionally filled a fuel tank of any kind.

Even Devereux himself — a British-born Canadian who has only been in the country for two years — has never had cause to fill an LPG tank.

"I've never filled up one," he said. "Before coming to Australia, I didn't even know what LPG was. It doesn't really exist in other places where we have done business. This is something that we have to get in the minds of consumers to overcome..."

There is little doubt that Devereux has been sold on the benefits of LPG in this country. It wasn't enough that he was spruiking the gas's cost-effectiveness, ease of use and contribution to the country's energy security — he even supported Ford Australia's efforts to bring it to a wider audience of private buyers. He has previously praised Ford in his capacity as president of the FCAI, but this time he was speaking as the MD of Holden — Ford's oldest continuing rival in the marketplace.

"I'm almost going to choke on the words... but I'm going to say them anyway. This is very difficult for me to plug Ford. Usually it's all Holden versus Ford, us versus them, V8 Supercars... but Ford has launched what I think is a really, really well executed LPG system. World class stuff.

"It's not about us versus them, it's about actually growing the segment and showing people that this is a mainstream thing for mums and dads, for single folks, to drive cars that have this technology. And I hope that Ford sells a lot of these LPG [cars], because it signals something for this country as well — and I may sound strangely patriotic for someone who isn't from Australia... but it also allows us to retain [the] unique capability for design and engineering in this country. I believe that's something that is important here — not just to design something that everybody else does...

"I think it's great that Ford is doing that; I hope that people buy thousands and thousands of Falcon LPI... But I also hope that people do the same thing for our cars — and that in general the stigmas associated with LPG kind of get blown away over the next couple of months."

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