Almaty car owners switching to gas because of fuel prices

Demand for gas equipment for cars is growing in Almaty because of increase of fuel prices, Tengrinews.kz reports. Private cars are getting gas equipment along with public transport. Vehicles modification companies say that twice more drivers than usual have appllied to them lately: the number of requests increased by 70 percent. One local company is currently modifying 30 cars a month to drive on natural gas. After switching to gas, fuel consumption of the car stays changed and the engine power loss is insignificant, about 2 percent. The cost of modification will pay off in a year, depending on driving intensity. The price of liquefied gas at Almaty fuel stations is 65 tenge ($0.44) per liter. Modification of car costs from 50 thousand tenge ($340) or higher, depending on the engine type and the volume of the gas bottle installed. It is impossible to modify the vehicles working on diesel fuel. Earlier Tengrinews.kz English reported that over 5 thousand of Almaty public vehicles will be switched to gas by 2014. City administration is planning to give loans to citizens for modifying their cars to switch to gas.