LPG rebate doubly appealing

Ford Australia has welcomed the Rudd Government's announcement that the rebate for new cars fitted with LPG systems would be doubled.

That rebate has received relatively little coverage in the media, but with Ford charging $1400 for the single-fuel LPG 'E-Gas' Falcon and the rebate now worth $2000 instead of $1000, it's possible to buy the car for a nett sum $600 less than the purchase price of a standard petrol equivalent.

"And when you go to Western Australia," says Ford Australia President, Marin Burela, "the state government provides another incentive on top of that -- so we see that as a huge opportunity for us and I'm moving my team very strongly... to focus on that over the next few months."

Burela noted that there was some reluctance to adopt LPG as an alternative to fuel -- even though it has been available for a long time in this country -- for reasons such as the additional tank in the boot, eating into luggage space. Burela says that European markets are beginning to migrate to LPG from diesel, the previously favoured alternative to petrol.

"Markets like Italy, Germany, Holland are really starting to move towards LPG -- and the reason why they're doing it is because the running cost is significantly lower and they're also getting nice incentives from governments to actually move in that direction, which is changing the dynamics of the market."

The Ford Australia President reckons that with the nett cost of the car now lower than a petrol equivalent, the E-Gas Falcon is about to enter a new phase of market significance.

"What we may be looking at here is a trigger point," he says.

"Previously, with a $1000 incentive, it was still costing people money to go to LPG -- in terms of the option choice. Now, you actually benefit, to the tune of about $600. On top of that, your running costs are going to be lower, so when you put that all together, if you're not focused on trunk package -- and that isn't a huge criteria for you -- this could become a very, very viable choice for you.

"Incidentally, we've sold so far somewhere in the order of 80,000 LPG [Falcons], but the vast majority of those have been in fleet... I think that there have only been about 1500 to 2000 units [sold to private buyers], so you can see that this really presents a huge opportunity for us."

If there's one consideration likely to hinder Ford's hopes for increased uptake of the E-Gas variants, it's the current car's lack of stability control, an issue that Ford plans to resolve in coming months.

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