Italians Squeezed by $9.50-a-Gallon Gas Face Costly Drive

[ALS]

Italians now spend more each week to fill their tanks than they do to feed their families.

Chiara Vasarri And Tommaso Ebhardt - BLOOMBERG - August 31, 2012

Giovanni Cimmino filled up his Fiat Multipla in Croatia before returning to Italy after his summer holiday, avoiding Europe’s highest gasoline prices.

“You need a smart strategy to save on gas,” said Cimmino, 37, who manages a metals trading company near Milan. With pump prices at a record in Italy, “I tend to use more public transportation and avoid driving when it’s not necessary.”

Unleaded fuel has climbed to more than 2 euros ($2.50) a liter, about $9.50 a gallon, in some areas of Italy, including parts of the Tuscany region. That’s made this year’s end-of- summer “rientro,” when Italians return to the cities after their August vacations, more costly than usual.

Motorists are being hit by the fallout from the European debt crisis as the government of Prime Minister Mario Monti raises gasoline taxes to rein in the world’s fourth-biggest public debt. High fuel prices are weighing on consumer spending, deepening the country’s fourth recession since 2001 and sapping earnings at carmaker Fiat SpA (F) and highway operator Atlantia SpA. (ATL) ... [Read More]

[southerncannuck]

It's not so bad when you ride a Honda SH150I, the number one most popular scooter in Italy.

[Carcus]

"Italy, with a very long tradition concerning the use of CNG vehicles, is still the absolute European champion with 785,000 CNG vehicles by early 2012, meaning an increase of + 16% in the last two years (676,850 units by end 2009)"


http://www.ngvaeurope.eu/italy



/add, looks like Bernanke indicated today that the US Treasury is going to fire up the printing press once again,.... so we can be more like Italy.

[herm]

CNG is essentially tax free in Italy, fuelish not to switch, from your link:

"Natural gas has a favourable taxation when compared to other automotive fuels"

Fuel	volumetric tax cost	energy tax cost
Gasoline	0.7042 €/l	2.20063 €cent/MJ
Diesel	0.5932 €/l	1.64778 €cent/MJ
LPG	0.14442 €/l	0.60173 €cent/MJ
CNG	0.00331 €/Nm3	0.00919 €cent/MJ

[Airbalancer]

The highest I saw in June was $ 2 a €, and that was in small tourist trap of a town

[waltermlee]

Originally Posted by herm

CNG is essentially tax free in Italy, fuelish not to switch, from your link:

"Natural gas has a favourable taxation when compared to other automotive fuels"

Good Golly!
Those numbers would make me a believer, too!

[herm]

With those numbers I would put up with nasty diesel also..

[Carcus]

Also linked (pretty sure --- don't know Italian) is a price map of CNG in Italy. If my math/conversions are correct it looks like CNG is running $3.00 to $3.50 (US) per gge.

http://www.metanoauto.com/modules.ph...utori&op=Mappa

[xcel]

Hi Carcus:

I can imagine every auto shop in Italy working overtime to install CNG tanks over there. Why bother with gasoline when CNG is one-third the price!

Wayne

[herm]

We cant allow all them people to avoid their fairshare fuel taxes.