Archive for the ‘gas’ Category
Regulator investigates £50m gas overcharging claims against npower – Times Online
Posted on: May 24, 2008
- In: $50M | - | against | claims | gas | investigates | npower | overcharging | Regulator | Times Online
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Millions of consumers may have been overcharged by at least £25 on their gas bills by one of the biggest energy companies, The Times has learnt.
Ofgem, the energy regulator, is investigating claims that up to 2.2 million customers of npower may have been billed too much for gas usage. Energywatch, the energy watchdog, believes that excess charges could total more than £50 million.
The problem has come to light after readers of The Times uncovered apparent flaws in npower’s billing systems and alerted the watchdog, which referred the matter to Ofgem.
Energywatch is urging all npower’s gas customers to check their bills for the past 12 months. A spokesman said: “We think up to 2.2 million npower customers could have suffered from the same problem that Times readers have identified. If we are proved correct we want to know what the company will be doing to compensate those who have lost out.”
The problem centres on how many units of gas npower is entitled to charge customers each year at the higher of its two rates. In literature and on its website, the company states that the higher charge applies to a maximum of 4,572 units per annum — after which customers pay at a lower rate.
However, the company claims this figure refers to a “tariff year”, not a calendar year. In 2007, npower’s “tariff year” lasted only seven months — from April to November, when the tariff was altered — meaning that many customers ended up paying significantly more than 4,572 units at the higher rate over the course of the year.
Consumers are already facing sharply higher energy costs. Since January 2006 the average annual household energy bill has risen from £735 to £1,048, according to uSwitch, the price-comparison website. The increase for npower customers has been even steeper, from £671 to £1,056.
Since the start of 2006 npower’s gas customers have suffered no fewer than four price increases. In January 2006 npower put up prices by 13.7 per cent, and followed this up with further rises of 15 per cent in March and 17.2 per cent in October.
There was a 16 per cent cut in 2007 but this was more than wiped out by a further 17.2 per cent rise in January 2008. A typical npower gas customer now faces an annual bill of £631, compared with £466 at the start of 2006.
Domestic energy bills could rise by a further 25 per cent this year as the wholesale cost of gas surges higher.
Dave Strom of South Boston, Va., bought a Smart ForTwo Passion Coupe, which he says is getting 45 miles a gallon.
Soaring gas prices have turned the steady migration by Americans to smaller cars into a stampede.
In what industry analysts are calling a first, about one in five vehicles sold in the United States was a compact or subcompact car during April, based on monthly sales data released Thursday. Almost a decade ago, when sport utility vehicles were at their peak of popularity, only one in every eight vehicles sold was a small car.
The switch to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles has been building in recent years, but has accelerated recently with the advent of $3.50-a-gallon gas. At the same time, sales of pickup trucks and large sport utility vehicles have dropped sharply.
In another first, fuel-sipping four-cylinder engines surpassed six-cylinder models in popularity in April.
“It’s easily the most dramatic segment shift I have witnessed in the market in my 31 years here,” said George Pipas, chief sales analyst for the Ford Motor Company.
The trend toward smaller and lighter vehicles with better mileage is a blow to Detroit automakers, which offer fewer such models than Asian carmakers like Toyota and Honda. Moreover, the decline of S.U.V.’s and pickups has curtailed the biggest source of profits for General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.
Once considered an unattractive and cheap alternative to large cars and S.U.V.’s, compacts have become the new star of the showroom at a time when overall industry sales are falling.
Sales of Toyota’s subcompact Yaris increased 46 percent, and Honda’s tiny Fit had a record month. Ford’s compact Focus model jumped 32 percent in April from a year earlier. All those models are rated at more than 30 miles per gallon for highway driving.
Dave Strom of South Boston, Va., recently bought a tiny Smart ForTwo Passion Coupe, made by Daimler, the German automaker.
Mr. Strom also owns a pickup truck, which he uses mainly to haul his boat. When he runs errands, he drives his Smart, which he says is getting 45 miles a gallon.
“I had to smile the other day when I filled my tank for $18 and the guy next to me had a Ford Explorer and the pump was clicking past $80,” said Mr. Strom, a 66-year-old retired manager of a Chevrolet dealership.
Previous spikes in sales of smaller cars were often a result of consumers trading down during tough economic conditions or gas-price increases. When the economy improved or fuel prices dropped again — as they did after the oil-price shocks in the 1970s eased — buyers invariably went back to bigger vehicles.
But with oil prices expected to remain high for years, auto industry executives are seeing a turning point.
With an average national fuel cost currently hovering around three bucks for a gallon of regular, fuel economy matters.
Posted on: March 25, 2008
- In: American Idol | Chevy | Ford | Fuel | gas | GM | SUV
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Over the past decade, the driveways of mainstream America filled with SUVs whose fuel-swilling was, at the time, not a concern.
Fuel costs almost doubled from 1996 to 2006 and grew another 20 percent in the past year. The average U.S. household income, meanwhile, rose only 35.8 percent in the same 10-year period.
The associated shift in vehicle sales is telling.
In 2007, sales of Chevy‘s Tahoe full-size SUV fell by 9.4 percent from 2006, while retail sales for the unlovable but frugal Chevrolet Aveo leaped by 82 percent.
GM‘s John McDonald wrote this off as these vehicles’ being “deferrable purchases,” implying that land barges hold some kind of inherent allure and that Americans would prefer to drive dump trucks if gas were free. This is, of course, entirely possible.
But gas is not free, and we don’t drive dump trucks, and as car buyers search for better fuel economy, they increasingly don’t want to drive trucks of any kind. R&D dollars are focused on unibody crossovers that ad campaigns tout as more fuel efficient than the trucks they replace, with even Ford’s Explorer headed for a frame-free future.
It’s not just big trucks that get lousy fuel economy, either.
The culprits of poor fuel economy are many, but common underlying causes include portly curb weights, older drivetrains, and the conscious exclusion of fuel-saving technologies to keep production and purchase prices down.
Before you spend your money on a new car, make sure you pay attention to the equipment list, because with the wrong engine or transmission choice, heinous fuel economy is sometimes just a checkbox away.
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