Poland Becoming a Worldwide Leader in Autogas

Nowy Swiat, a busy street in Warsaw that sees a constant flow of propane-powered traffic. (image: realworldimage.com)

The United States is slowly starting to come around to what the rest of the world already knows – propane autogas is a cheaper, cleaner motor fuel than gasoline. It’s easier on a car’s engine and becomes more accessible every day. Now, officials in Poland are saying the alternative fuel is more popular than ever, with 20 cars every hour being converted to run on propane autogas, Poland.pl reported this week.

“LPG industry is booming because of the high price of oil. Before, customers had to make a decision whether to buy a diesel or petrol car. Today, they often immediately decide to convert the car to run on LPG,” said Jozef Tyborowski, vice president of AC S.A., Poland’s leading LPG installation company.

Though most of Poland’s propane comes from Russia, it has maintained one of the oldest and most successful propane markets in Europe. In 2009, Poland had 2,170,000 autogas-powered vehicles on the road, fed by 6050 autogas fueling stations. More recent surveys estimate Poland now has around 2.5 million autogas vehicles on the road.

Officials believe Poland ranks third in world autogas consumption, behind only Turkey and South Korea. Many of the country’s fuel dealers attribute autogas’ continued climb in popularity to its new application in expensive cars and high-end appliances. Once considered a good fuel only for those living in poverty, improved conversion technology has opened propane up to a whole new demographic – it’s now appealing to a full range of customers on the socio-economic spectrum.

“We install LPG systems on sports and luxury cars. Autogas has ceased to be a fuel for the poor,” explained Janusz Kosiba, CEO of leading LPG supplier Czakram.

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