On the right road to a greener form of travel
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The Queen and Prince Philip do it. Even government ministers do it. Let’s do it, let’s drive an LPG-fuelled car.
Not quite in Cole Porter’s lyrical league, but the above sentiments do give a flavour of the growing popularity of LPG vehicles, albeit from a low base, encouraged by a felicitous combination of cheaper costs and environmental benefits.
Growth in demand for autogas, as LPG is called in this market, will be good for seaborne trade. And there is plenty of room for growth. Consultancy firm Frost and Sullivan estimates that there are 12m LPG vehicles on the roads, representing only 1.6%-1.8% of the global market. About 18m tonnes of LPG was consumed for road transport last year.
The need to increase LPG in road transport was underlined by the Group of Eight governments in their June summit declaration. They pledged to work for an increase in the share of alternative fuels and energy carriers, such as biofuels, hydrogen, LPG-CNG (compressed natural gas) and electricity.
“Worldwide, the global automotive industry is strongly focused on cutting down automobile emissions, and this has led to increase in development of LPG-CNG fuels and their conversion equipment,” says a new report by Frost and Sullivan.
“Appropriate infrastructure, along with the required support from governments and fuel suppliers, will accelerate the acceptance of LPG and CNG as alternative fuels globally.”
Frost and Sullivan estimates that 1.7m LPG conversion kits were sold last year. The firm predicts that demand will see a compound annual growth rate of 14% in the six years to 2012, when it expects 3.8m conversion kits to be sold.
Turkey, India and Pakistan are forecast to dominate the market with a combined share of 40%-50% in 2012.
Demand for autogas has recently received a boost because of the sharp rise in the price of petrol.
Even though the price of LPG is linked to the price of oil, it is nevertheless cheaper than petrol and Frost and Sullivan expect that to remain the case.
However, increasing competition from other alternative fuels, such as ethanol and biofuels that are equally eco-friendly, could challenge the growth of LPG and CNG as the alternative to fossil fuels.
“Lack of appropriate infrastructure for distribution and refuelling is hindering the growth of LPG-CNG in new markets, as do the low awareness levels among customers about the benefits of alternative fuels,” adds the report.
Although LPG and CNG are bracketed together, they do not really compete in the same geographic markets.
Filed by Maria Robson under Other, The Environment