LPG is the preferred alternative automotive transportation fuel. Autogas is today the most accepted alternative fuel in the automotive sector with more than 13 million vehicles operating worldwide. The added value of LPG as an automotive fuel is that it generates considerably fewer emissions than other fossil fuels, contributing to the protection of the environment and human health while also mitigating the threat of climate change.

Autogas – LP Gas used as a transport fuel – is by far the most widely used and accepted alternative automotive fuel in use in the world today. Global consumption of autogas has been rising rapidly in recent years, reaching 22.9 million tonnes in 2010 – 8.7 Mt, or 60%, up on 2000 levels. There arenow more than 17 million autogas vehicles in use around the world. Yet autogas use is still concentrated in a small number of countries: five countries – Korea, Turkey, Russia, Poland and Italy – together accounted for more than half of global autogas consumption in 2010.

The share of autogas in total automotive-fuel consumption varies widely among countries, ranging from a mere 0.1% in the United States to 18% in Turkey. The only countries other than Turkeywhere autogas makes up more than 10% of the automotive-fuel market are Korea and Poland. The enormous disparity in the success of autogas in competing against the conventional automotive fuels, gasoline and diesel, is explained mainly by differences in government incentive policies.

The primary reason why governments in many countries actively encourage the use of autogas and other alternative fuels is the environment. Autogas out-performs gasoline and diesel as well as some other alternative fuels in the majority of studies comparing environmental performance that have been conducted around the world. Autogas emissions are especially low with respect to noxious pollutants. With respect to greenhouse-gas emissions, autogas performs better than gasoline and, according to some studies, outperforms diesel, when emissions are measured on a full fuel-cycle basis and when the LP Gas is sourced mainly from natural gas processing plants. Even so, the strength of actual policies and measures deployed does not always fully reflect the true environmental benefits of switching to autogas from conventional automotive fuels. Some countries promote autogas for economic reasons too, notably to provide an outlet for surplus indigenous production of LP Gas.