What are the virtues of LPG, Liquefied Petroleum Gas? To find out, Pierre de Vilno welcomes the President of the service station and renewable energy branch at Mobilians, Francis Pousse, to the podcast “Toutroule” on new forms of mobility.
Why aren’t there more LPG cars on the road? “The problem in France is that LPG has had its moments of glory and, conversely, its moments of despair. It has been around since the beginning of the 1980s that LPG has been implemented in France. And there were various phases which mainly relate to safety and various events made us afraid. At the beginning, you could not park your LPG vehicle in a very problematic car park in town. Then we introduced a safety valve, but in some cases it was necessary to change the tanks, and therefore a very high cost. We occasionally provided aid for the purchase of LPG vehicles which we stopped a year later. In the end, nothing favored the good performance of LPG on the French market, unlike other European countries.”
Every week, embark with him on an immersive tour to test electric, thermal or hybrid vehicles. Pierre de Vilno then receives an expert to question him on a major question related to new mobility. This native podcast is a Europe 1 Studio production in partnership with Mobilians.
Do Chinese cars have a future in France? In this eighth episode of the “Everything rolls” podcast produced by Europe 1 Studio with Mobilians, board the Aiways U5, a 100% electric 4×4 “made in China”. Driving pleasure, design, price and range of the vehicle, Pierre de Vilno decrypts this vehicle, which was first launched in Europe, from every angle. He then receives Nicolas Caillot, director of Aiways France, to answer the following question: will Chinese brands impose themselves on the French automobile market?
Find “Everything rolls” on: http://www.europe1.fr/emissions/tout-roule
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In the GPL, what is there? “It comes from the manufacture of fuels. Moreover, at the time, before we used it to move cars, it was a gas that was burned in refineries, so we recovered. So we recovered it to diffuse it in the air, in the reservoirs. But indeed, there is the word oil which does not have a good press at the moment. It is a liquefied petroleum gas, this is not a natural gas.”
And so there has been a kind of fight at the moment between those who say that we should nevertheless rather accelerate synthetic fuels rather than LPG? “Indeed, even if an LPG pollutes less than a liter of gasoline or gas oil. I think it’s about 20 to 30% less, which is considerable. But since we decided to do without fossil products on the horizon, at least for engines for sale by 2035, no favors are given to petroleum-type fuels.
And how is the price calculated? Finally, why is LPG so cheap? “It’s really taxation. It was done at the time to favor precisely this fuel. Unfortunately for all the reasons we have just talked about, it didn’t take. But that’s the reason, at the same title that super ethanol is taxed less to promote a partly organic product.”
Why do other car manufacturers invest little in LPG? “It’s the law of supply and demand. LPG does not necessarily have a good press for all the reasons we have just mentioned, so there is little demand and therefore inevitably little supply.”