News
26 July 2013

Autogas breakthrough in Vietnam

Petro Vietnam Transportation Corporation commenced a trial of Autogas in several hundred taxis across the two main cities in Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi – earlier this year.

During a visit to Ho Chi Minh in May, WLPGA Director David Tyler had meetings with several Petro Vietnam officials to learn about the scheme.

In an attempt to protect the local environment, Petro Vietnam have converted 500 to 600 taxis from gasoline to Autogas. The taxis are owned by Petro Vietnam Transportation (PVT), a subsidiary of Petro Vietnam. The price of LP Gas and gasoline are controlled in Vietnam and currently the price of Autogas is around 80% of that of gasoline.

So far the trial is limited to PVT taxis but private companies are watching the scheme closely. Driver reaction has been very positive. One of the drivers spoken to by David during his visit was enthusiastic about the new fuel and said he noticed ‘no difference in performance’.

However the public perception towards LP Gas is still a challenge. Some passengers are wary about the new fuel because of the fear of ‘explosions’. David pointed out to the Petro Vietnam officials that since Hong Kong converted their entire fleet of taxis across to LP Gas there has not been one single safety incident involving the fuel. In total, 20 billion cumulative kilometres have been driven by Autogas taxis since 1999, when Autogas was first introduced in Hong Kong.

The WLPGA returned to Ho Chi Minh on 3rd July 2013 to run a Best Practice Workshop and made presentations at an Asia LPG Conference at the New World Hotel on the 4th and 5th.

For more details, please contact David on dtyler@worldlpgas.com