Will a gas-powered car really pay off within a year?
For those who travel a lot – yes!
We calculated the payback period for a conventional car with a gas consumption of 9 l / 100 km in the city and 6 liters on the highway, assuming that 60 thousand rubles were spent on the installation of methane HBO (in regions where the installation is subsidized – the cost is lower, where not – higher). We have taken into account the costs of warming up before accelerating (litres per 100 km) and maintenance of the equipment.
The price of gasoline is 52 rubles per liter, Gazprom sells methane (CNG, CNG) at an average of 25 rubles per cubic meter. It is clear that a correction factor is needed – cubic meters are consumed differently than liters. So, Lada Vesta CNG consumes 10-12 cubic meters per 100 km in the city and 7-8 cubic meters on the highway.
Under the given conditions, the positive will occur with a trip on gas fuel within 35-40 thousand km. It will happen in a year or three – it depends on the annual mileage. And from the vicinity of the gas station – an idle run spoils the picture. And you will have to ride it often: typical cylinders can hold 15-25 cubic meters.
Bee propane-butane (LNG) result is similar: it is more expensive than methane, but HBO is cheaper. The power reserve is higher and the most important thing is that it can be refueled ten times more.
Where to refuel?
An alarming fact: the number of autogas filling compressor stations (CNG) is starting to decrease. By the fall, we counted two dozen closed gas stations. There were only a few of them – about 650, and they are located extremely unevenly: where it is dense and where it is empty.
The main reason for the closure is unprofitability. CNG filling stations are profitable to build and open, because the budget provides huge subsidies, but then it is unprofitable to maintain, because the demand for compressed natural gas is low.
Demand directly depends on the number of cars equipped with methane-LPG. Official sales of such machines in the factory version have grown steadily until 2021: in five years their share of the total sales volume has grown from 0.5 to 2.6%.
Independent retooling is advancing by leaps and bounds: in 2019, about 15 thousand owners installed HBO, in 2020 – about 10 thousand, in 2021 – about 20 thousand. Anyway, in numerical terms, everything is somehow not very impressive – tens of thousands – this is a drop in the ocean.
In total, less than one and a half million (3.2%) of Russia’s 44 million passenger cars accept gas fuel. And only a few of them run on methane: the vast majority are propane-butane.
It turns out to be a classic vicious circle: in order to have more gas cars, more filling stations have to be opened and vice versa. Meanwhile, Gazprom promises that the number of CNG filling stations will reach 1,000 in two years and the opening rate will increase.
Number of CNG filling stations in Russia (excluding multi-fuel filling stations)
|
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
|
356 |
600 |
721 |
743 |
730 |
635 |
Consumption of compressed natural gas (CNG) as motor fuel (million m3)
|
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
|
850 |
1190 |
1230 |
1260 |
1300 |
1243 |
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