The Motor Fuel Group (MFG), the largest independent forecourt operator in the UK, has said that supplying auto-LPG is no longer commercially viable. The company plans to remove auto-LPG from all its forecourts by 2024.
MFG had to announce its plans through the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) because of the preliminary investigation by the CMA into the purchase of Morrisons Supermarkets and forecourts by MFG’s US private equity owners.
The CMA reported that “MFG submits that auto-LPG is no longer an important product category for modern petrol station forecourt businesses due to a continued industry-wide decrease in demand. This decrease in demand means that revenues are low and will continue to decline, thereby making any continued investments, including periodic testing of the facilities, commercially unviable. Accordingly, MFG plans to remove auto-LPG from all of its sites between 2022 and 2024.”
MFG intends to replace its auto-LPG facilities with Electric Vehicle rapid charging hubs and other services, such as grocery offerings or car wash facilities. MFG currently has over 200 150kW chargers on its sites and has plans to electrify its network of over 900 forecourts.
The decision by MFG follows Shell’s decision two years ago to end its joint venture with Calor and decommission its LPG refuelling network. At the time, a spokesperson for the joint venture said, “Customer demand for LPG for domestic transportation has declined due to changing customer preferences and the increasing availability of other lower-carbon fuels.”
Over 1,000 sites in the UK still stock auto-LPG, but it only makes up around 0.2% of UK road fuel demand. Estimates of the number of LPG fuelled vehicles on UK roads are around 100,000. The UK government will phase out the sale of new vehicles powered by autogas. No manufacturers sell pure auto-LPG vehicles in the UK, which means the only way to use it is to convert an engine or install an LPG engine to work in a bi-fuel system.
Auto gas should be encouraged, there is a growing demand in the rapidly growing domestic leisure market with campers. Gas should be encouraged for vehicles as well, the push to electric is environmentally unsound as the production of short lived non recyclable batteries and ghe environmental damage caused by their production is well documented. Gas is by far the cleanest of all fossil fuels with regards emissions and subsequent environmental and health issues. Too many governments have been lead by the nose (no doubt with cash incentives) to push for diesel over the years the emissions of which cause acid rain and also harmful lung conditions in children, yet still they pushed the use by reduced pricing for many years. Will they ever learn? I doubt it. Will MFG learn that when each electric car sits on their forecourts for 20 to 30 minutes while charging that they could fill 20 to 30 petrol tanks in that time that electric is not the answer, no they won’t because they have been conned. LPG is a far better fuel all round. The production of electricity could be green with solar and wind, but no they are going for nuclear and what do they have to do with the spent fuel rods? Enclose them in concrete and dump them at sea, they give out heat, this increases the sea water temperature, increasing the melting of the ice caps, aren’t we trying to get away from that? Have they not considered that?
Several very good points well made there Wynn!
Wynn I just want to say I absolutely agree with everything you have said. I cannot understand why government doesn’t understand that earth’s resources are being depleted to provide components in batteries which only have a finite life anyway and just where is all the electricity going to come from to charge up all these batteries to run these cars, it’s madness. The human race is hell bent on destroying this fantastic planet one way or another.
Where do you think LPG comes from?
In order to cause harmful lung condition the kids and adults would have to sit behind the car and be breathing it in for so long it’s stupid. The advancement in filters for Diesel cars are impressive. I also read somewhere a couple of years ago that Bosch had came up with a system that helped cut the emissions by a lot more but they couldn’t retro fit it to older cars. The system basically heated up the Cat a lot faster which meant it started working a lot sooner thus cutting the emissions to less than what the Government target was/is. If this was true why are the government not pushing this system to be installed ASAP. Then there would t be a need to stop maki g diesel cars. To be fair until petrol or electric cars can do 500 miles on a single charge and the car not cost a small fortune then the uptake will remain low.
The insane policy the UK government adopt regarding fossil fuels bears no relationship with saving the planet. I totally agree with the points made by Wynn, Batteries are a short-lived alternative to fossil fuels and, apart from disposal after a short life, no one appears to consider the child labour used in mining and the shortage of raw materials to support battery manufacture.
Maybe a petition is in order for the government to carry on with lpg cars encourageing these vehicles owners to continue being converted less air polution and earth distruction i for one would definately sign a petition
Let’s get a petition started
Unfortunately unfounded rubbish regarding electric vehicles, they are the miles ahead of any hydrocarbon fuel based vehicles. Batteries can easily last 1,000,000 miles with todays technology and then be recycled to provide 97% of the original components input. Further more with battery grid storage plus solar we could replace ALL other sources of energy by using a tiny fraction of the energy that hits earth from our sun every day… You should note that I currently drive an LPG powered vehicle.
absolutely true its all about profit/greed,(not health issues) I used LPG back in the 70s & for the last 12 years to present day Aug 2022,we don’t need to be producing battery driven vehicles look at the waste after they have had their day,, life expired batteries that is pollution, to think of the chemicals involved in recycling, come on people wake up were been duped by the governments around the world.. its a con trick electric cars its a joke???
Totally agree but when the Caravan and Motorhome club will not support the cause what chance is there. They are simply not interested so will lose my membership.
LPG is Not Just used for Propulsion of Motor Vehicles , It is also standard on some Motorhomes/Campers & Caravans , Bottled gas is at the moment is big Demand and the availability of Bottles to buy New not even an option in my area .
The Situation with Covid has seen a decline in Recreational usage which is Expanding very quick at present – This is Bad News for the Leisure industry .
What about the Dacia Duster Bi Fuel?????
Or doesn’t it count because its a Dacia!
Here’s me with my brand new bi-fuel Duster thinking WTF!?!
Me too,
I done lots of research and found that LPG is both the cheapest fuel and the most environmentally friendly fuel.
Bought my new Dacia knowing that Morrisons is just around the corner from my home so no problems getting the LPG and now they have stopped selling it !!!
CNG is the beat fuel …
So where does that leave campervans, motorhomes, etc. who use LPG for heating and cooking?
Wouldn’t that be bottled
Not for many. We have refillable tanks and bottles that we refill at fuel stations ( or other outlets)
Not necessarily. Many motorhomes, such as mine, have an lpg tank that fills from a pump.
If my local MFG discontinued LPG I will gave to do a 60 mile round trip once a month yo fill up.
How can that be environmentally sound?
We need more LPG stations not less.
Not necessarily, many Motorhomes (incl mines) uses an underslung tank refilled at the LPG Pump. Anywhere between 25 – 55 litres. This is indeed worrying, since owning my Vehicle, I’ve only been able to fill at Morrisons, if this goes away I’ll need to find an alternative.
Not necessarily, we converted our motorhome
from bottled to refillable last year as we were going into Europe for 11 weeks
No you fill from the pump and its cheaper than exchanging bottles
Sales of Motorhomes shot through the roof in the past 2 years, a goodly proportion of those will have refillable systems. If you the garages organised themselves a little better they could make a greater margin by segregating the road fuel sales from the domestic rated LPG.
It’s already hard to find LPG stations. I regularly travel from the Midlands to Scotland and there is only one route I can take as it’s not possible already to fill up along the A1. Morrisons sites are the only ones left with the odd exception of a couple of Shell sites (Abingdon & Perth). Once they’ve gone that’s it. My car will have to run only on petrol. Large increase in cost. Large increase in emissions.
It seems whatever choices we make the government flip flops not long afterwards. Push for LPG. Then the push for diesel. Now the push for electric.
Electric cars are still way too expensive for me atm. Not really sure what to do now.
They want less cars on the roads simple. Now they need to make cars unaffordable for the majority of people this is why car manufacturers only make diesel engines for their luxury cars. Electric cars are expensive and won’t be for everyone. They are not narrowing the roads and slowing down traffic to replace old cars with new ones. If you understand that then everything they are doing will make sense.
We need more LPG points LPG is superb fuel emissions are so good the government is blind to this opportunity to clean air kits are very reasonable price wake up the UK don’t take LPG off forcourts
A possibility would be for camp sites in install a pump and sell it to monomers. Majority of sites have bulk LPG tanks for heating amenities so the installation costs would relatively small .
Those with a pump would attract even more motorhome users with refillable systems to their sites .
We should be lobbying the likes of CCC and CMC to install a lpg pump at sites with a bulk lpg facility.
They should not be permitted to cease LPG as there are more cars in the uk using LPG due to dacia now building cars with lpg.
Surely the likes of flo gas or calor have depots across the uk and could offer pumps at the depots ?
EV charging should be placed in main Car parks, as they are in the USA. EV charging takes 30minutes to 4hours depending on battery technology. Are you going to allow someone to block a pump for that long? We are at least a decade away from fast charging a EV in under 10minutes. To scrap the pumps is short sighted insanity. There is still a strong reliance by MotorHomes and a lot of Renault/Dacia and other brands for LPG as both a domestic fuel and a AutoFuel. The uptake of LPG in the UK has always been inadaquate compared to Europe. Jumping on the BlueGas bandwagon is a mistake (the last gasps of the oil industry putting all bets on a blue unicorn.) There a far lower take up of Methane CNG and Hydrogen fueled vehicles than LPG. The Advantages of LPG is greater with bi-fueled vehicles, Even Dirty diesels can be cleaned up when running with LPG to be cleaner emissions than petrol. The Future WILL be EV, but we are a very long way from there yet, 2030 is probably unacheivable with most manufacturers facing bankruptcy to upgrade, as with street/powergrid infrastructure needing rebuilding.
Unfortunately a US private equity firm is unlikely to be persuaded by any environmental arguments for LPG. The UK government should make sure a strategic network of LPG fuel stations remain open.
Think they have not quite done their research fully on that one, Dacia sells a Bi-fuel Petrol/LPG vehicle in the uk.
Not so sure where they are getting their info from but the uk gov is not phasing out the sale of LPG vehicles, in fact, they give a reduction in VED for new LPG vehicles.
That story contradicts itself in the first paragraph it claims no manufacturer sells a LPG vehicle in the uk, then in the second paragraph, it says the government is phasing out the sale of new LPG vehicles in the uk.
What about the caravaners who have “Safefill” bottles to use for power when off grid.
Ditch Johns
Absolutely disgusting, is this the way the lower income get messed about by money. It’s just making it impossible for the normal people to drive a car. Proofs again that environment has nothing to do with it only money and profit
Dacia sell Bi-fuel Vehicles auto lpg because I purchased one last year.
It’s criminal!!!!!! The cleanest fuel going The systems are now fantastic & 100% safe in Europe it’s getting more common
The uk 🇬🇧 has gone to pot
J ross
JRM Recovery
We have a lot of LPG in iraq and now many cars been added the unit to it to make it operated by both LPG or by Gasoline
BTW, is LPG safe for the people? And engine?
It’s a lie. Demand is increasing. 900taxis in Glasgow get converted to LPG. A lot of random people converted their private cars to LPG my mechanic have a que 4months ahead.
What a silly decision… with fuel prices rocketing and the price of LPG still around 65p a litre it need to be promoted.
Just look at a map of Holland showing LPG filling stations. There are an enormous number of them! Morrisons are about to stop selling LPG in 2024 which will mean that there will be hardly anywhere in the UK to re-fuel. I run a factory Bi-fuel Dacia Sandero and a Mercedes SLK which I converted to run on LPG. I’m so concerned of the just where I’ll be able to re-fuel in the near future?
There is a petition to save LPG, if everyone signs this, it might just help raise awareness.
https://chng.it/kgrjQJJPwH
I have a dedicated gas vehicle and here in Australia I have witnessed in the last year two fuel stations near me removing their gas bousers. It worries me greatly as I would prefer to hold onto my vehicle for another ten years because I only recently replaced the tanks. I guess I just hope and pray I’m able to keep filling it up for that long. If not well I feel the world is saying tough luck. Shocking and disappointing. Even more shocking when I see a diesel car spewing out black smoke from the exhaust being a regular occurrence. Doesn’t make any sense. Other than some money hungry so and so’s. The world has gone mad!!!
What s mistake LPG is now proving a viable alternative
Let’s not forget lpg is a fossil fuel and is by product of petrol .which the world is trying to ween us off it by producing electric cars.to produce LPG you are doing the same damage to the environment as petrol. You just can’t get rid of one without the other.
I have owned a Mercedes Vito van fitted with an Lpg system from new, and it was beautiful to drive, but I had the system front end removed, as the input points on the inlet manifold has corroded sufficient to fail the MOT on emissions, Lambda being distorted by air leaking in. Very few motor repairers will work on such a system confidently, my nearest was closing and I needed a new inlet manifold. So back to petrol!!
Very short sighted companies, I used to visit my local Shell garage fill up with about 14ltrs of LPG but 60 to 80ltrs of diesel at the same time. Now I just fuel up at the cheaper Sainsbury forecourt. LPG should be used as a loss leader.
Our local LPG stations never recovered from Brexit. Being a long-term LPG user, it’s very frustrating that since then, LPG is available maybe once a month then sold out and randomly delivered. The hospitals use a lot of LPG in their backup generators though, and we do have a few dedicated LPG places, but I predict a queues once we’re limited to 3 outlets in Bristol.
Does anyone have an up to date list or website that provides current stations that still have LPG? It’s impossible to find up to date information without phoning each station directly.
Amidst the shifting tides of automotive evolution, the venerable auto-LPG bows out gracefully. MFG, the titan of forecourts, bids farewell to this once-thriving companion on the journey of motoring. No longer deemed commercially tenable, auto-LPG exits the stage, yielding to the rapid charge of electric vehicles. Shell had already sounded the retreat from LPG, reflecting changing tastes and the rise of alternative fuels. As the sun sets on auto-LPG, the charging hubs of tomorrow take center stage, painting a greener, more electric future for the open road.