Natural gas vehicles in Malaysia.

The number of natural vehicles in Malaysia is drastically increasing. This due to the RM0.50 rising price of gasoline to RM1.92. And there is a rumor of price hike for this year. This situation triggered a big headache to the public on how to resolve the problem. The low income people already pushed the panic button to find alternatives. Malaysia natural gas reserve is fourth fold of oil. This is a fact. And Malaysia should encourage public and exploit the natural vehicles actively. The reduction 25% of road-tax is a good start to promote natural gas. The price of CNG nowadays is only RM0.68/l compare to RM1.92/l of gasoline, which is 1/3 of gasoline price. But one of the main problem is the availability of fueling station nationwide. The number of fueling station in Malaysia is small and most of refueling stations are located in Klang valley. It is informed that the cost of building refueling station is high, thus it is not economically compare to the number of NGVs user. Therefore, it end up a long queu for CNG fueling. Most of NGVs in Malaysia are conversion vehicles; either gasoline-based or diesel based engine. There's no major modification to the engine have been done.The intake runner, the MOP, compression ratio, piston crown, the ECU, engine mapping are all remain as OEM deleivered. Iin order to convert the vehicle, they need to fork-up about RM3000 to RM4000 for CNG instrument for instance; regulator, piping, valve etc. Most of them do not re-map the ECU which is the main requirement for engine optimization. Therefore, they end up with several issues; under power, bulky storage, cranking problem in the morning and ECU hair wired. This has risen attention to local expertise to assist the situation. And few CNG research programs has been initiated by few local higher learning institutions. The CNG characteristic and it combustion are well studied. Thus, to overcome the situation; a few suggestion has been made to improve and promote NGVs in Malaysia. (a) The introduction of bi-fuel engine from OEM. No conversion kit. This accelerate the need of more fueling station. (b) More government incentive to NGVs user as such road tax, insurance and so on. (c)Public awareness of air pollution.