The recommended retail price for petrol is currently 2,453 euros per litre. For lpg – which stands for liquid petroleum gas and is also called autogas – this is only 1,371 euros per litre. Quite a difference. The waiting lists at conversion companies are increasing, because more and more people want to get rid of petrol.
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“It is very busy. We have three times as many requests as we normally have. People are looking for alternatives to petrol,” says Ad Kattetaart of E&A Autogastechniek. The waiting list at the company has now increased to about four weeks. “There are some exceptions, but in principle every car can be converted so that it can run on LPG.”
gas tank
Converting a car takes two days: your vehicle will then receive a gas tank, an extra filling opening for LPG (next to the hole where you normally fill up the petrol) and a computer system that allows your car to run on gas.
According to Kattetaart, the conversion can be an advantage for many people, because you spend less annually on fuel costs. Although you do have to include the investment of the LPG installation: “That is between 1700 and 2600 euros. And it differs per car how economically you drive.”
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Is it worth it?
How fast do you get your money out? We make a calculation with data from autogas.nl. The average motorist drives about 13,000 kilometers per year. With a car that drives 1 in 14, you will lose 2279 euros per year with the current fuel prices for a petrol car. For a car that runs on LPG, that is 866 euros per year. That saves you 1413 euros per year.
But of course you also make an investment that will cost you at least 1,700 euros. You also pay about 232 euros extra road tax per year for LPG. So it can take about a year and a half before converting your car really pays off.
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Besides the fact that you have to be patient before you have your investment, according to motoring journalist Wouter Karssen, there are more things to consider. “That tank is a huge monster, you have to put it somewhere and that is not possible with all cars.” As a result, your spare wheel may have to be removed, or you will have less space in the trunk. “You also add complexity to cars that have become more and more complex in recent years, which can cause malfunctions.”
‘Riding Bomb’
LPG is also not available everywhere. “In the Netherlands things are going reasonably well, although there are fewer LPG stations than when it was extremely popular in 2000. It is sometimes more difficult to fill up with LPG across the border,” says Karssen. There are also parking garages abroad where you are not allowed to park with an LPG car. “They see it as a moving bomb, although that does not occur in practice.”
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