The main gaseous automotive fuel in Spain is LPG or Autogas, made up of butane and propane. While gasoline, diesel and compressed natural gas have risen a lot in price, LPG maintains the rate below the euro per liter.
In the 10 years that I have been driving with Autogas, I had only seen prices above 80 cents per liter in 2012, when gasoline rose from 1.5 euros per liter and flirted with 1.6 euros. It went down to almost 40 centsand now it’s in your all-time high.
However, that all-time high is not as painful as that of other automotive fuels. Since December the 95 octane gasoline has risen from 1.47 euros per liter to €1.75, and it keeps going up. The 2 euros have been exceeded in several service stations.
No less strong has been the rise in diesel oilgoing from 1.34 euros per liter to €1.68, and it keeps going up. It is also possible to refuel diesel at 2 euros per liter, prices never seen before in Spain. The numerical difference is 0.28 euros per liter for gasoline and 0.34 for diesel.
And what about LPG? Well for better or for worse prices are updated less frequently than the rest of fuels, so several days pass before the price rises. I do not rule out a sudden high in March, but currently that has not happened.
If in December the liter of LPG was 0.84 euros per liter, now the average is 0.89 euros per liter, only 5 cents more. It has not yet reached the psychological barrier of 1 euro per liter, a figure that I have only seen once at the pump of a company selling to the public in 2012 (and where I did not return, obviously).
Now let’s do some calculations. Suppose the same car model spends 7 l/100 km on LPG, 6 l/100 km on gasoline or 4.5 l/100 km on diesel. In the table below we see the difference of traveling 100 kilometers with these average consumptions.
Thus, in practically three months of difference, the motorist who uses the gasoline car has gone from spending 8.82 to 10.5 euros for the same route, the one who uses the diesel from 6.04 to 7.56 euros, and the who opted for LPG from 5.88 to 6.23 euros. But to make it more visible, let’s assume 1,000 kilometers of travel.
With gasoline, the 1,000 km now cost 16.8 euros more than gasoline, 15.2 euros more than diesel, and with LPG only 3.5 euros more. It has practically risen 5 times less. Be careful, CNG doubled its price before the invasion of Ukraine, going from the stable price of almost 1 euro per kilo to 2 euros per kilo. Using CNG is now twice as expensivebut is still competitive with gasoline and diesel (3-5 kg/100 km is usual).
And why is LPG being alien? Two reasons occur to me. The first is that LPG is obtained mainly from deposits in the Maghreb, less exposed to the rise from Russia, and the second is that the price is updating very slowly. I do not rule out that it reaches 1.2 euros at once. In that assumption, how would mathematics be?
Well, maintaining the previous assumption, 7 liters at 1.2 euros per liter are 8.4 euros per 100 km or 84 euros per 1,000 km, a little less than gasoline, above diesel, and with a difference in cost in three months of 25.2 euros more. Depending on the car, it would be cheaper to use gasoline temporarily.
At 0.89 euros per liter, filling a 60-liter tank (45 useful) costs 40.05 euros
Let us bear in mind that LPG has a very low tax burden, and that to do exactly the same job, a converted engine spends a few liters of LPG more than one of gasoline, between 15 and 30% more, given the lower energy content of the Autogas. Maintenance is barely increased and there may be bonuses in the IVTM, in addition to the ECO label.
The supply of new LPG cars is very scarce if we leave Dacia, SsangYong or Subaru. Several low-volume Chinese brands offer LPG conversion in Spain to keep their guzzler engines competitive. Yes, LPG is still necessary, keep coming outand by the time hydrocarbon taxes rise, most will have amortized the extra cost of the factory/concessionaire conversion or an independent transformer.