Is LPG worth its near 40% fuel-cost saving?
If you convert your petrol-powered car to run on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) you will achieve the same mileage as you do now, but the cost of filling up will be around R13 per litre, instead of more than R22 per litre (inland price of 95 unleaded in July 2023).
Fuel prices are an unavoidable burden for South African car owners. Swipe your card for those fuel reward points all you like, but any feeling of financial smugness is undone by the first Wednesday of the following month – that’s when the national fuel prices are adjusted, usually upwards…
Government inflates the pump price for petrol and diesel by a ridiculous amount, with layers of taxation that hardly benefit the maintenance of our nation’s road infrastructure (which is what it is supposed to do). But what if drivers could choose a fuel type that costs nearly half the price of 95 unleaded petrol?
For years, South Africans have been seduced by the slick marketing of fuel-saver systems and remarkable engine mapping software that’s optimised for economy. But those doodahs are based on fantasies – not engineering facts. So why would the promise of 40% cheaper pump fuel be any different?
It really works
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is a proven fuel alternative for internal combustion vehicles; in fact, it’s estimated that 26 million cars in the world run on LPG. Your German luxury sedan, or SUV, can be easily configured to run on LPG, provided it consumes petrol. And with South African LPG prices about 40% more affordable than 95 unleaded petrol, you can drive almost twice as far as you would for the cost of a tank of fuel-pump petrol by switching to LPG. You’d nearly half your fuel expenses, in other words.
What are the technical issues of converting to LPG? Not all fuel types are similar, and fuel quality varies wildly – especially in South Africa. A benefit of LPG is that it’s a cleaner-burning fuel than petrol or diesel, with lower contamination risk. Considering the injection systems pressure of a new turbopetrol engine, LPG’s clean burning properties and low contaminant risk are bound to benefit engine life.
LPG’s energy density is similar to those fuel types that it would replace, plus it delivers a comparable driving performance. So, if you can fill up with LPG, at the cost of approximately R13 per litre (July 2023), instead of paying nearly 40% more for petrol (the coastal price of 95 unleaded was R21.74 per litre in July 2023), why aren’t more South Africans converting their vehicles to LPG?
The cost of converting to LPG
The Eskom crisis has convinced and conditioned South Africans that when it comes to matters of energy, they are best served with self-sufficiency. We’ve all become experts at calculating the cost and benefit ratio of going off-grid, for electricity, but are the numbers for LPG convincing enough?
A rounded purchase cost for an LPG automotive conversion is about R25k, with installation costs adding another R2 950. You’d need to consume 30 tanks of fuel to recoup the initial investment in LPG, which would take about 4 years of driving. But would you keep a car for more than 4 years? That’s the question.
Fuelling vehicles is mostly about cost – but also convenience. And with the legacy petrol and diesel infrastructure being so well developed and distributed, most drivers never think how inconvenient alternative fuels and energy sources could be until it’s too late… and they are stranded.
If you can’t refuel everywhere, what’s the point?
Running out of gas at home is annoying, especially when you’ve marinated steaks for an evening meal. Not every cylinder can be refilled by every gas service provider, and it’s a chore to uncouple, carry, bump your shin, refill, and recouple gas cylinders. But it’s something you only need to deal with once a year.
With an LPG car, the refuelling convenience factor is a rounding error, and the administrative burden is potentially massive. You can’t roll up at your local gas service provider to fill up. LPG cars have the same problem as hydrogen vehicles and EVs in South Africa: the infrastructure is simply wildly inadequate.
There is one LPG service station in KZN, commissioned and operated by Isinkwe. A few LPG refuelling stations exist in Gauteng, of which Sasol runs one, and Cape Town has a station or two, too.
It takes much less time to refuel an LPG car than recharge a battery electric vehicle (BEV), but the fuel type won’t become viable unless exponentially more service stations are distributed. And it’s unlikely that vehicle brands will invest in supporting it, as has been the case with EV infrastructure. Be sure, too, that Government won’t provide support to enable an alternative fuel source that will reduce its tax revenue.
The risk of voiding your warranty is real
Perhaps the most notable obstacle to embracing the 40% fuel cost discount offered by LPG, is that your car’s manufacturer is likely to take issue with any unapproved modifications that you make to the vehicle (such as implementing an LPG conversion) while it’s warranty is still in effect.
Suffice it to say, vehicle ownership in South Africa is expensive, and you don’t want the equity in your vehicle to get lit-up by a warranty dispute. Although LPG is proven, it could become a point of dispute with any mechanical issue regarding your car’s powertrain, fuel system or electrical architecture.
What about dual-fuel engines? Aren’t they a thing in other markets? They are. Brazil is perhaps the best example – in its huge car market, many vehicles run on dual-fuel engines capable of burning ethanol.
But does it make sense to grow mielies to fuel cars? Probably not. Maize is a South African staple food and serves a much better purpose in tummies than in fuel tanks.
Will LPG make sense for some?
Renault does produce a dual-fuel capable Duster, powered by the TCe 100 ECO-G engine. It has 2 fuel tanks (50 litres of unleaded petrol and 42 litres of LPG) and a claimed range of 1 000 km. Performance? When burning LPG, the 1.0-litre turbopetrol TCe 100 ECO-G engine produces 10 Nm more torque.
The repayment arithmetic with LPG isn’t that great, and your warranty risk is real, even on unrelated vehicle issues. But does that mean LPG and its enticing 40% pump price discount serves no purpose for all South African car owners? Perhaps not.
If you own an out-of-warranty petrol bakkie or SUV, which will be moderately heavy on fuel, and only use it in an urban environment, LPG could be a win for you. But that is a very narrow use case.
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