Cars powered by LPG gas, or liquefied petroleum gas, have become an ecological alternative highly demanded by drivers who decide to change cars. The data reflects this since its sales have risen 250% in Spain in the last five years, a figure that in Europe is reduced to 35%. In the last month of June, 2,177 cars with LPG were registered, 114.06% more than the same month of 2021.
In this link we explain all the keys to LPG gas, its advantages and disadvantages.
High demand keys
The reasons are various. The main one is the economic savings of up to 50% that LPG represents compared to gasoline. The average price in Europe of LPG in 2022 is 1.02 euros per liter compared to 2.11 euros for gasoline. These data represent a saving of about 5 euros per 100 kilometers, specifically, according to Dacia’s online calculator, if you do 100 kilometers a day, you save €4.75 per day, 142.42 euros per month and 1,732.73 euros per year .
By adding an LPG tank under the trunk (which is the most common), in the space that the spare wheel would occupy, the total autonomy of the vehicle can reach 1,200 kilometers thanks to its double tank; I would give you to go from Madrid to Paris without refueling or LPG or gasoline.
LPG refueling points in Spain are not a problem either because the network has more than 800 service stations with this gas, of which more than 415 are at Repsol gas stations. The person in charge of Autogas (LPG of Repsol) and Repsol Service Stations, Estíbaliz Pombo, tells us that the investment to install an LPG gas refueling point is around 100,000 euros compared to the 300,000 or 500,000 euros that must be invested for a point of compressed natural gas (CNG gas)
But in addition, an important reason is added and that is that today you have access to a car with LPG, and therefore with the Eco label of the DGT, for 13,400 euros that a Dacia Sandero costs. Although, according to Dacia’s marketing director, Alaitz Garín, “the majority of Dacia cars with LPG that customers buy are priced between 18,000 and 23,000 euros.”
And at this point there is no other choice but to talk about Dacia as the absolute leader in the LPG market in Spain with a share of 86% thanks to the fact that it has this technology in its entire range at affordable prices.
150,000 LPG cars in Spain
More than 28 million vehicles powered by LPG circulate in the world, of which more than 500,000 are Dacia models. In Spain there are 90,000 vehicles registered from the factory as LPG, of which more than 46,000 are of the ‘low cost’ brand of the Renault Group. If we count the vehicles converted to LPG gas after the purchase, the number of vehicles in circulation in Spain amounts to 150,000.
Currently Dacia is the only brand that offers LPG versions from the factory, in origin, the guarantee, therefore it is 3 years or 100,000 kilometers. They are models that pass the same tests and evaluations as the rest of the range. To which is added the economic prices of the cars, in the case of an LPG version the premium is between 300 and 600 euros compared to the equivalent gasoline version. An extra maintenance cost is also added because it has one more filter (for LPG), although the intervals are the same. This added cost is amortized over 15,000 kilometres.
The reason for these cheap prices is that Dacia develops light cars, with the essential equipment – that the driver does not lack anything but does not have too much either. And if the car weighs little, with a small engine it achieves sufficient performance, good habitability, better aerodynamics and has space to equip it with LPG without reducing the boot capacity compared to the thermal version.
Will there be LPG in the future?
The European Union has recently declared gas and nuclear energy as green energies, an argument that could perhaps facilitate a more orderly transition towards electric mobility, taking into account that in 2035 combustion engines will be prohibited. As they explain to us from the Renault group, Spain has asked to review this regulation in 2028, “we hope that by that date gas can be included as one of the alternative fuels that can continue to be marketed,” they say.
LPG gas reduces NOx emissions by 68% and contributes to reducing the greenhouse effect by reducing CO2 emissions by 14% and reducing noise levels by 50%. These advantages for the environment give LPG vehicles the DGT Eco label.
Dacia contributes to decarbonisation thanks to its Eco-G offer, a gasoline-LPG dual-carburation engine. Being an economical, ecological and accessible solution, it is driving drivers to change their car and rejuvenating the Spanish car fleet, whose average age is 13.1 years, one of the oldest in Europe. Currently Dacia’s LPG offer is found in the Sandero, Sandero Stepway, Duster and Jogger range. In 2024 or 2025 the range will be expanded with a C-segment SUV that will be called Dacia Bigster and that will have a LPG variant.
- All the offers of new cars from the Dacia range with LPG here.
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And if you are looking for a second-hand Dacia LPG, here are our offers.
How to improve an LPG car
Until having a response from the administration, Dacia will continue working on improving its LPG offer. At the moment, they are already developing the engines that will comply with the Euro 7 regulation: it is expected to be approved in November to enter into force in 2025. These engines will be more powerful and will allow faster transitions between both types of fuels (gasoline-LPG) .
At the same time they work to be able to combine LPG with other types of transmissions that are not only manual and also to improve autonomy with LPG. “My challenge is to reduce autonomy with gasoline to a 10-liter tank so that the rest is LPG, but we found a technological brake with the price of the tank, which is high, now our limit is set by the space of the spare wheel” , explains Sergio de la Torre, responsible for Dacia’s LPG vehicle engineering worldwide.
