CNG car drivers run out of patience

There are 1,600 CNG vehicles but only two all-access CNG stations - and queues are long
Alvin Lim, Straits Times 27 Jul 08;

Queues in Singapore usually mean what's at the end of the line is worth waiting for.

But don't tell that to the occupants in the long lines of vehicles that run on compressed natural gas (CNG), waiting at the only two fuelling stations.

Their long-suffering gripes: long queues, too few stations too far away, 10 minutes to fill up, up to a two-minute wait between cars, shut down of pumps during thunderstorms, and now, rising CNG prices.

The numbers, and the daily bottlenecks, tell their story.

There are now nearly 1,600 CNG-capable vehicles, up from about 550 in January.

They are served by only two CNG stations: one in the west, in Jalan Buroh, and one in the north, in Mandai.

A third fuelling station, run by SembCorp Gas on Jurong lsland, is not open to drivers who have no access there.

All in, the two available stations have just 10 pumps.

The Mandai station, managed by Smart Energy, has eight; the Jalan Buroh station, run by SPC, has two pumps operated by SembCorp Gas.

In contrast, Singapore's 531,590 petrol-driven cars can fill up within minutes at the 200 or so petrol stations islandwide, usually without any hassle.

For owners of CNG-driven vehicles, peak periods can mean an hour's wait.

It takes at least 10 minutes to fill a CNG tank with a typical capacity of 66 litres.

Then, there is a 'cool-down period' of one to two minutes before the next car can fill up - to 'drive up the pump pressure' first, a pump operator at Mandai said.

Motorist Prabhu Vivekananda, 38, a quality assurance manager, said: 'Sometimes a pump breaks down and it worsens the queues.'

Mr Yazid Yusof, 22, a driver for a parallel car importer, who takes up to eight cars daily to the Jalan Buroh station, said his wait could be as long as an hour each time.

The situation worsens in Jalan Buroh during thunderstorms as the pumps are shut down for safety reasons.

Another motorist, who wanted to be known only as Mr Chang, said he has 'no choice but to wait for the rain to stop'.

'It's not that bad because I live not too far away, in Bukit Panjang. Just imagine how it will be for a car owner who lives in Pasir Ris, in the east.'

He intends to give up his CNG-driven vehicle.

'My car is only two months old, but I'll sell it by the year's end. CNG is not for me,' he said.

Other than the desire to 'go green', many owners had taken to CNG cars because of the relatively cheaper fuel.

But CNG prices have been rising, from $1.28 per kg in May to $1.59 early this month to the current price of $1.73 per kg.

Taxi drivers, who cover long distances, say they have been badly hit.

Cabby Lim Teong Beng, 37, said he has driven his new CNG taxi for only two weeks, but now wants to go back to a diesel one.

He said he used to make at least $100 when he drove a diesel taxi but is now earning barely $60 even after driving for 18 hours a day, two hours longer than usual.

Like most CNG-capable cars here, his taxi - a Hyundai Azera CNG - is 'bi-fuel', which means it can run on petrol as well.

His taxi's 3.3-litre V6 engine does only 160km on a full tank of CNG. 'I have to rush back to Mandai the moment I run low on CNG. I cannot afford to switch back to petrol. It defeats the purpose of using CNG in the first place,' he said.

Fellow cabby Kamarudin Mizah, 52, said many of his colleagues had given up driving CNG taxis because of the high operating costs and the inconvenience of having to pump at only two locations.

One solution is to increase the fuelling facilities.

SembCorp Gas may expand its CNG operations here under the brand Gplus. A spokesman said that it is exploring this, 'subject to the necessary approvals'.

Smart Energy, meanwhile, won a 5,500 sq m plot of land in Serangoon North on Thursday and will start building a station there, general manager William Chua told The Sunday Times.

He added that Smart will expand the number of pumps in Mandai from eight to 16. This will double its capacity to 200 cars per hour.

But a spot of bad news is ahead. The Jurong Island and Jalan Buroh CNG stations will close for maintenance for two days from tomorrow, leaving Mandai the sole CNG station open during that period.

Meanwhile, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has responded to recent concerns that the special tax exemption which CNG cars now enjoy may be removed.

This special tax is to recover fuel duty imposed on petrol. Duty is not charged on CNG at the fuelling station.

In the case of CNG bi-fuel cars, an LTA spokesman said: 'The exemption is up till Dec 31 next year and a review will be conducted in due course...The Government has also not ruled out the extension of special tax exemption for such cars.'