China: Much more private cars retrofitted LPG engines in C. China's Wuhan amid surging gasoline prices

Chemical News: China: Much more private cars retrofitted LPG engines in C. China's Wuhan amid surging gasoline prices

https://www.chemnet.com Mar 14,2011
More and more private car owners fitted LPG engines in their cars in Wuhan City of Central China's Hubei Province in face of high gasoline costs.

A source with Wuhan Minsheng LPG, a major LPG supplier in Wuhan, told C1 that the company received application to retrofit more than 1,000 cars in the past two months. Wuhan has only 800 private cars equipped with LPG engines before.

Driving cost of a car with LPG as fuel is Yuan 0.4/km, versus Yuan 0.75/km with 93-Ron gasoline, according to a local driver.

In addition, it was convenient to equip a car with LPG engine without removing gasoline engine, cost of which was also cheap, the driver introduced.

Price of vehicle-use LPG was Yuan 4/liter in Wuhan at present.

However, it may take a long time to spread use of automotive LPG in Wuhan, because cars equipped with LPG engines had weaker horsepower and LPG could more easily cause damages to engines than gasoline due to higher ignition point, market sources denoted. Additionally, there are only 14 vehicle-use LPG refueling stations in urban areas of Wuhan while no such stations in rural areas.

Wuhan has 4,500 taxis and buses in total, 90% of which burn vehicle-use LPG. The fuel was mainly supplied by importers in South and East China.

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