Things to Know Before Installing a CNG Kit in Your Car

Are you planning a CNG kit installation in your car?  There are few things to take note of before you install CNG in your vehicle. Read on to know more.

The increasing costs of fuel prices has left people with the limited alternatives of using CNG enabled cars or electrically powered vehicles. The highly priced electric vehicles are beyond the budget of common people. So most people are left with the option of availing CNG enabled cars to save costs on diesel and petrol.  Compressed Natural Gas or CNG as it is commonly called is environment friendly and is also affordable at the same time. Thus, more and more people are opting for this money saving alternative to cut costs on fuel and diesel on their vehicles.

If you want a CNG kit installation to be done in your car, you have two choices. One is to buy a new CNG enabled car or to install CNG in your car that you are currently driving. In case of new CNG enabled car, the CNG kit comes fitted in the vehicle, while if you want to install CNG in your existing car there are a few things to take care of. Buying a new car with pre-fitted CNG kit is of course a good option. In this case, your car insurance policy will also have CNG mentioned in the policy. However, in case of installing CNG in your existing car, you have to inform the insurer about the same.

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So, if you are willing to use CNG kit for car, here are a few things that you should know before installing the kit:

• Compatibility – All the cars are not compatible to CNG, which means CNG kit installation is not available with every car. So, it is important to ensure if the car you are currently using would allow you to customize and install a CNG kit in the vehicle.
• Genuine – It is important to understand that not all CNG kits are genuine. Like in all other things, there are fake or duplicate CNG kits available in the market. So it is very essential to know the difference between the real and the fake kit so that you can stay away from duplicate stuff. So, always go for a branded kit from a reputed dealer.
• License – If your car is eligible for using CNG kit, the next important thing is to get legal permission from RTO to use a retro-fitted CNG or a modified version of factory fitted CNG. You will have to change the fuel details in your car RC as well from petrol/diesel to CNG.
• High cost – It is also important to note that procuring a CNG kit from a reputed dealer will need you to spend a significant amount of money, around Rs. 50, 000 – 60, 000 depending on your car model. Further, there are other maintenance costs too to consider. So, you must mull over all these costs and compare CNG kit price list to see if you are interested in installing CNG in your car.
• Availability – This is another significant factor to consider before you go ahead with CNG kit installation. CNG is not available in all the petrol stations as they are available in few stations only. So, in case of emergency you might have to travel far to get your CNG refilled, which is not the case with petrol or diesel fuel stations.
• Performance of car – Using CNG in diesel car or petrol car might have an effect on your car’s performance and it might go down with time. This is because the change of engine affects the car engine thereby making it to deteriorate.
• Insurance Premium – Yes, by using CNG kit in your car you might increase the premium amount to be paid for your vehicle insurance by at least 10%.  However, this depends on different things like your car type, and your insurance policy that is already active and so on.
• Insurance Claims – If the insured person doesn’t inform the insurance company about the change of fuel to CNG, the car insurer will not entertain claims in future. The fuel type is already mentioned in your car policy. Now if you change it without informing the insurer then in that case the insurer will not entertain such a claim and you will not get reimbursed for your car damages in case of a mishap.
• Save Money –  Using CNG will help in saving a lot of money on fuel if you compare it to using petrol or diesel model, especially in the long run. You might be able to recover the amount incurred on installing CNG within a few years if you use your car regularly.
• Clean Fuel – With CNG, you get to use clean fuel and add to environmental safety, while this is not true with petrol or diesel cars. With CNG, the chances of fire catching your car is minimum. As CNG emits low carbon than other fuel type like petrol and diesel, it is good for the environment as well as for human health. Moreover, it is cost-effective so help you save money.

Conclusion 

CNG enabled vehicles are widely used in almost all Indian cities, especially in metropolitan cities in India. People these days like to use CNG cars as they are environment friendly and cost-efficient. So, either people are buying new CNG enabled cars or installing CNG kit in their already existing cars to replace the use of petrol/diesel.

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Now, a common question that most people ask is, can CNG be fitted in diesel cars? Yes, of course CNG can be fitted in many petrol and diesel cars depending on the make and model of the car. CNG usage is serving as a viable option for people willing to shift to CNG and it is easy to purchase insurance on vehicles installed with CNG kit.