Thursday, October 21, 2010

CNG V/S DIESEL

CNG v/s DIESEL?This is becoming a very common question for car buyers now a days. With the developing infrastructure in the form of CNG filling stations and kit fitting stations people are getting tempted to run their vehicle on CNG, and also the latest technologically equipped cars are giving the petrol cars a run for their money.


1.Analysis on CNG
Coming on to CNG equipped cars, the most advantageous parameter is terrific economy, the running cost is only1.3 to 1.5 re/km where as the same petrol car costs 3.5-4.5 re/km, where as the diesel car costs 2.5-3.5 re/km. With CNG car you have decent economy,with which you can freely move your car without fearing about the running cost. Development of CNG filling stations is on a high growth so searching for filling stations will not be a problem. The most of  Gujarat region has the CNG filling stations, and you can also find CNG stations in Mumbai.CNG filling stations are not available across the country, they are concentrated in Gujarat and Maharashtra and some parts of northern India like Delhi, Gurgaon,Jaipur.It is less developed in southern India with only a few stations in metropolitan cities like Hyderabad.


The other most advantageous point of using CNG cars is its less polluting tendency, it is less polluting by 70% than petrol cars, by using CNG cars the preservation of nature is confirmed.
                                                             
Along with the advantages, there are some disadvantages of the using CNG. The CNG is stored in a metal storage tank  which uses up the trunk space(diki) so in case of small car a carrier has to be fitted and a sedan car(car with separate trunk) the trunk sizes reduces to half.Moreover CNG being a gaseous fuel does not have the volatility of petrol so it does not burn very efficiently, hence you have a power cut of 10% over the same petrol vehicle, E.g if a petrol car power is 100BHP then the same car will produce 90BHP, so their is less pick up compared to petrol vehicle. Proper fitting of kit is very important, improper fitted kits will result in frequent garage visits, with the problems like starting trouble.


Analyzing the running cost, if the running of car is more than 25 km a day, then CNG will be economical.The CNG kit will cost around 30-40 thousand rupees, so the price of CNG kit will be recovered in one year, considering a 3 Re saving per KM and running of 12000 km a year, which equates to 36000 Rs in a year.The succeeding years of driving will be your saving.


While buying CNG car be sure that the dealer provides engine warranty, fitting CNG kit without dealer or company warranty will lapse warranty period, resulting in no free replacement in case of any sensor or other engine problem.The problems are rare but the risk should be avoided.


Driving your car only on CNG will choke up the fuel injectors and also disturb the valve setting after 15000kms,so it is advisable to run you car on petrol for 10kms in every 150kms to avoid such problem.   


2.Analysis on Diesel 
Coming on to diesel, the latest diesel engines unlike the old diesel engines, are more sophisticated in terms of economy and performance. The latest engines are electronically controlled, and all the parameters of engine are monitored by Electronic Control module(ECM), so the efficiency is high and the noise and vibrations are very low. Driving a latest diesel car will pamper you the same as a petrol car. The latest diesel cars are equipped with turbo charger which produces more power,which gives you more pick up sometimes even better than petrol.Their isn't any problem of diesel filling stations like CNG.


Running cost for diesel cars are about 2-3 Re/km which is whole 1.5 times more than CNG and 1.5 times less than petrol, and also the diesel car costs 70,000rs more than same petrol car.The advantage is that the trunk space is not compromised and also you can take the car anywhere with the proper availability of diesel across country unlike CNG. For diesel the more the number of kilometers you drive the more is the advantage, because with  more number of kilometers the running costs saving increases.Latest diesel engines are equipped with turbo chargers and have high torque. It suffers from turbo lag thus you will feel sudden acceleration after 1-2 sec time. Problem which is somewhat common with all diesel cars. Thus buying diesel car is a thoughtful think where CNG sources aren't developed.


3.CONCLUSION
Concluding it can be said that with developing infrastructure and economical running CNG has a bright future,their is a little disappointment with the pick up and the trunk space,avoiding these two facts a fantastic and a economic deal.Diesel is also advantageous with great pick up and technology and is worth buying, but for uncertainty of the fuel prices and the higher initial cost diesel cars are always going to be more expensive deal.



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