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Hard Drive
The price of gasoline in Israel has risen 12.3 percent this year alone, hitting businesses and citizens in their already aching pockets, and boosting sales of hybrid vehicles. by Michele Chabin A liter of gas — self-service — has risen to NIS 6.97 while the price of diesel is NIS 8.57. That’s more than $8 per gallon. With service, it’s NIS 7.12 and NIS 10.22 respectively, plus an NIS 2.50 service charge. Though gas has always been more expensive in Israel than the U.S. due to steep government-imposed tariffs, a 12.3 percent price hike since the start of 2008 coupled with the spike in the cost of airplane fuel is affecting companies, organizations and everyday Israelis. The consumer pages of the daily newspapers are packed with tips on how to deal with the problem, with ideas “I don’t know anyone who has actually lost the perk of a company car yet — but I do know that companies are asking their people to be more conservative about the use of their car,” says Ardie Geldman, co-founder of Donor Associates in Israel, a company that advises philanthropists. “Companies are saying, ‘If you can do a meeting over the phone rather than face-to-face, all the better.’” The astronomical price of airplane fuel is certainly cutting into the Israeli business sector, says Mark Feldman, CEO of the Ziontours travel agency, but the recent downturn in business travel “has more to do with the overall recession,” he says. “Israeli companies are experiencing a downturn in the number of orders.” Feldman says fuel prices are affecting his non-business travelers in different ways. “Anglos who have family in the ‘Old Country’ haven’t curtailed their travel at all. What they’re doing is opting for a stop in Europe, which is a bit cheaper than a nonstop.” At the moment it is nearly impossible to find an El Al flight from Tel Aviv to JFK for less than $1,500, according to Yael Sharon, one of Feldman’s travel agents. Leisure travelers, in contrast, “are staying home,” Feldman says. “They’re not just popping over to Europe, because the same flight to Italy that cost $500 last summer costs $800 today. And that’s for a flight that’s just three-and-a-half hours long. No matter how much gas costs here, it’s still cheaper than a plane ticket.” That’s of little consolation to the millions of Israelis who must drive, for whatever reason, but professional drivers have been hit the hardest. Last month the country’s taxi and truck drivers staged a mass sit-in on the Ayalon Highway, Tel Aviv’s main thoroughfare, to protest the government’s decision not to lower gas taxes. “This is the entire public’s consumer struggle,” Transport Board Chairman Gabi Ben-Harush told Haaretz at the time. “We will all pay for these price hikes in gas stations or supermarkets.” The price of food here has in fact soared during the past few months, due not only to the high price of transporting the food, but also because the use of crops to create biofuels has led to a shortage, and consequent higher demand, for corn and other oils. “Gas has never been this expensive,” says Mohammed Hadiah, a worker at the Oranim gas station in Jerusalem. “Everyone’s complaining, saying the government should do something.” Hadiah said the price of regular gasoline has shot up from three shekels in 2005 to more than seven shekels today. “That’s bad enough, but the price of diesel fuel has jumped from NIS 1.5 to almost NIS 8, and that’s with a big discount. The taxi drivers are having it worst since they run on diesel.” Filling up his tank in the self-service lane, Ilan Chaim, an editor, said it costs about $100 to fill up the average Israeli tank per week “and that’s just everyday usage. We’re not talking about going to Eilat. This is just for driving around town.” While companies and nonprofits can at least deduct some mileage off their taxes, individual consumers have no such option. “My daughter moved from Jerusalem to Yevul,” a moshav on the Egyptian border in the south of the country, bemoaned a resident of Beit Shemesh, which is located between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. “We were visiting her once a week but have stopped because of the gas.” This mother, who asked that her name not be published, noted that she and her husband are hosting a wedding for one of their children in September, “but we doubt many people will be coming in from the States in order to attend because the plane tickets are so high.” Given the ever-escalating fuel costs, it is no wonder that hybrid cars are becoming increasingly popular in Israel. In 2005 only 10 gas/electric cars were purchased here, compared to 493 in 2006 and 1,731 in 2007, according to the Air Quality Division of the Ministry of Environmental Protection. During the first two months of 2008 alone, the most recent statistic, 506 hybrid vehicles were bought. “I used to see one or two hybrids a week,” says Hadiah, the gas station employee. “Today I’m seeing one or two a day.” Jody Garfinkle, a mother of four, just purchased a five-passenger hybrid Toyota Prius. Before, her gas-guzzling eight-passenger van “costs me over 400 shekels to fill the tank every 10 days, and that’s just for local driving. “My son is in the army and if we need to take a family vacation we can always rent a car,” she says. Many Israelis are looking toward the day Israel will be equipped to handle electric cars. The idea has received a lot of attention because Israeli-born entrepreneur Shai Agassi intends to build the first-ever electric car grid and battery exchange station in Israel. “That sounds great in theory,” says a 20-something motorist filling up at Oranim, “but with the cost of electricity in this country, it might not be any better. Either way, we’re sunk.” |
 
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