India Stands At 16th Spot Globally In Auto LPG Consumption

Despite an environmental emergency brewing in our cities, India is still lagging behind in adopting the environment-friendly Auto LPG is a widely used transport fuel. Global consumption figures suggest that India stands at a lowly 16th spot when it comes to annual sale of Auto LPG.

This, despite the fact that auto LPG is the world's third most widely used fuel after petrol and diesel with more than 26 million vehicles running on it globally.

Indian Auto LPG sector grew at 14% the last fiscal with a sales figure of 400 thousand tonnes this past year. However, when compared with other countries, our usage of Auto LPG is still abysmally low.

While Auto LPG penetration remains much lower than its potential, India has made huge strides in recent years in improving country-wide penetration of domestic LPG, thanks to the success of Ujjawala Yojana.

According to Indian Auto LPG Coalition, the apex industry body for Auto LPG in India, the government must end the policy indifference that has stalled the growth of environment-friendly Auto LPG.

“The government has over the past 5 years displayed its commitment to the cause of clean energy. The success of the Ujjawala Yojana has been particularly encouraging, having helped increase the coverage of domestic LPG connections from 55% in 2014 to 90%. However, when it comes to Auto LPG, this zeal is missing. We request the government to extend this zeal towards the automobile the sector as well by introducing policies that favor a basket of clean environment-friendly fuels such as Auto LPG which has tremendous potential to clean up India’s environment,” Mr. Suyash Gupta, Director General, Indian Auto LPG Coalition (IAC).

Global Auto LPG consumption exceeds 26 Million Tonnes. South Korea leads the world in the usage of Auto LPG with the sale of more than 4 million tonnes annually; in comparison, India sold just around 400 Thousand Tonnes of Auto LPG this past fiscal year. Other key nations that have successfully adopted this green fuel for their transportation requirements are Turkey, Poland, Japan, Australia, Italy, Mexico, USA, Russia & China.

“Countries much smaller in size than us such as Turkey and Italy are ranked higher in the consumption of Auto LPG than India. Governments in these countries have successfully offered fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to the industry and people to promote this fuel. Unfortunately, the Indian government has so far shown indifference to it despite an environmental emergency brewing up in our cities,” adds Mr. Gupta.

In terms of LPG refueling infrastructure, there are over 6000 LPG Filling Stations in Poland, over 5000 in Turkey, about 3000 each in Australia, Mexico, and more than 2000 stations each in nations like Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Holland, and the US. In India, more than 500 cities are connected by the Auto LPG network with 1100 refilling stations, making it one of the most widely available alternative fuels in India. Yet, only limited vehicle conversions to Auto LPG are happening every year.

Among major metros, Bangalore, Chennai, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, and Kolkata have successfully introduced auto LPG with good availability of LPG filling stations. Significant success has been achieved in Bangalore, where LPG was made mandatory in three-wheelers. Most of the leading vehicle manufacturers of the country now offer LPG Variants and models. Besides, Auto LPG has the advantage of the low conversion costs, easy availability, versatility of use and an impeccable safety record. India clearly has the potential to become one of the leading Auto LPG markets in the world if the government offers little policy support to promote its usage.

Among the major hurdles to potential growth are high rates of GST being imposed on Auto LPG as well as on Auto LPG conversion kits, which are pushing the cost of this fuel and its usage. Apart from this, a major impediment to the growth of Auto LPG industry is the outdated Type Approval norms of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. These norms require companies to renew extremely cost-prohibitive Type Approvals for Auto LPG and CNG conversions every three years, which has led to the shrinking of honest players in the industry.