HSV Confirms Dual Fuel...

[AWD Chaser]

http://www.hsvforum.com.au/forums/showthread.php?t=5333

HSV has confirmed it will begin selling an LPG-powered version of its V8-powered performance cars from 2010.

Holden Special Vehicles will next year market an LPG-based dual fuel option for models in its high-performance range that owners haven’t asked for, and its dealers don’t want.

HSV admits that fuel economy does not rate in its customers’ top 10 concerns and managing director Phil Harding says HSV dealers have openly opposed the plan but that he was committed to doing it anyway.

“I’ve done a survey with my dealers and they’ve told me they don’t want it and I said ‘I don’t believe you’,” he says.

“So I’m doing this program without a solid customer demand for it. But I know that we started this program when petrol was $1.60 and heading north, and does anyone want to speculate that that won’t come back?

“My philosophy is that I’ve got to have that (LPG) in the cupboard. If we start off and people don’t option it, that’s fine, but there will come a point where they will.”

With the motoring world focusing on cleaner, greener cars and European performance rivals leading the charge to cut consumptions and emissions, Mr Harding admits HSV has no choice but to pursue an alternative fuels policy for its V8-based range of performance cars.

“We’re convinced it will become an issue and we’re trying to pre-empt that,” he says. “When fuel was $1.60 and companies were thinking that maybe they shouldn’t have V8s on their company car fleet, we felt we had to respond to that with some action.

“That’s the way this program started and I’ve come to love this program so much that I’ll do it anyway.”

HSV rejected diesel power in favour of an innovative LPG system, called liquid petroleum injection (LPI), which maximises the fuel’s power and economy benefits.

“We genuinely did look seriously at diesel,” he says. “We had an engineering prototype with a diesel engine in it, then it goes through a business case. Diesel fell over for investment and return, the LPI package didn’t.”

HSV still has E85 – an ethanol-rich blend of petrol – on its radar as a secondary alternative fuel strategy.

“That will come when people get more excited about that in terms of availability.”

For now though, HSV is focusing its energy on the LPI system.

“We have vehicles undergoing cold weather testing, we’ve got engines on test beds,” Mr Harding says.

The system will be offered as a cost option across all models in the HSV range except for its station wagon, the R8 Tourer. The LPG tank will be installed in the boot in sedans and in the tray for utes, and fully trimmed to eliminate its visibility.

“Where before you might get three golf bags into the boot of one of our cars, with the tank in there you’ll probably still fit two,” Mr Harding says.

“Because it’s dual fuel, when you floor the throttle it goes back to petrol. Those who have driven it can’t tell which mode it’s in, because it’s seamless.

“It will become accepted and one of the things I want to do is get rid of the taxi-type stigma with the cars.

“Why wouldn’t you take the car, because you’ll spend less on the fuel.”