LACK of refuelling facilities will soon become an invalid excuse for refusing to invest in gas-powered vehicles as more than 1,000 gas filling stations will be open for business by the end of this year. At the LPGA's LP Gas 2000 exhibition, the organisation's director general Tom Fiddell said that he believed with commitments from oil companies such as Shell and BP, there would be a comprehensive national refuelling network by the end of 2002.

'There is a new refuelling site opening every day of the week, so while today there are 433 sites, at the end of the year there will be 1,000 and at least 1,300 by the end of 2002, representing a £30 million investment by the gas companies. The fleet managers' excuse that they won't run gas cars because they cannot fill up will be invalid by the middle of next year.

Barry Ohrman, sales development manager for Calor Gas, which is in partnership with Vauxhall for the roll-out of its LPG sites and has now agreed to supply Shell with LPG on its forecourts, said: 'We now see the supply of LPG as the most rapidly expanding part of our market. A conservative estimate is that we will increase autogas supply by 15%-30% this year.'