“Challenges ahead and India on its way to becoming one of the largest Autogas markets in the world...”
By Suyash Gupta - General Secretary
Indian Auto LP Gas Coalition (IAC)
India is a unique market, because Autogas has been growing steadily despite little government support. The driving factor for LP Gas variant vehicles was the demand itself. Most of the vehicle manufacturers waited until India’s largest vehicle manufacturer Maruti Suzuki launched an 8 seat passenger van “Omni LPG” launched in 2004. Maruti, and the other car manufacturers, watched as Omni became the best seller in its category. In less than a couple of years, Maruti followed up with the launch of LP GAS variant Wagon-R.
Both LP GAS Omni and Wagon-R remain best sellers in their categories! Tata Motors, the country’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturer, very recently launched its LP Gas variant model Indica. It has been the highest selling model in Tata’s passenger car segment and their launch of an LP Gas variant is set to revolutionize the market with the country’s top two vehicle manufacturers launching their frontline models.
Following Maruti’s success, Hyundai, Mahindra and Hindustan Motors are now expected to follow shortly with the launch of their frontline models Santro, Logan Emerald and ‘Cedia Select’ respectively. Meanwhile very importantly Bajaj, India’s largest two wheeler manufacturer recently launched LP GAS versions of its bike ‘Platina’. TVS Motors, another leading manufacturer of two & three wheelers, is expected to follow shortly with the launches of both its bike and three wheel vehicles. Piaggio is already selling an LP GAS version of its cargo three-wheeler named ‘Ape’.
Unique Indian Market
The Indian market is unique and while the government sector oil companies Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPC) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPC) are the dominant market players, the private sector is catching up very fast. Out of 550 plus stations on March 31, 2008, Indian Oil had 157 stations, Hindustan Petroleum 103 and Bharat Petroleum 67. In the private sector, Reliance is by far the largest player with 135 stations, more than all the other private companies’ 100 stations.
IAC Focus
Currently one of the areas which we are focusing on is to discipline the weak links in the chain, particularly the below-par conversion work and spurious conversion equipment. We have recommended an Industry certification procedure to the government, which if accepted would be the first of its kind in the world.
Autogas Market
While Autogas has shown remarkable growth in most markets in recent years, one major factor which differentiates the Indian and other markets is national politics. Despite LP Gas being used as an auto fuel for the past 6 years, it has barely been able to cross the 1% levels of the total auto fuel market. Autogas is only 1.29% of the total auto fuel sales in India; the good news is that stations numbers are growing with more than 250 cities already covered with more than 550 stations.
The launch of factory fitted LP Gas vehicles by most of the car manufacturers has also played a significant role in changing consumer perception. This has also changed perceptions significantly, and has demonstrated the safety of LP Gas vehicles.
We have an Annual All Stakeholder conference every year between August and September, attended by our members, special invitees and the government. We usually have the seminar divided into three different sessions, concentrating on Refuelling Infrastructure, Car Manufacturers launching LP Gas variants directly and after-market conversions - which still is the major chunk of the auto LP Gas vehicles. Chaired by experts, these sessions feature two-three presentations each, focussing on both, the Industry issues as well as new technologies in infrastructure as well as conversion. The most important segment of the seminar is the open session in which government representatives are present as well.
The Indian Autogas Coalition (IAC)
The Autogas Association of India has more than 30 members and is growing each year. Our members include the Oil sector PSU’s Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, Integrated Private Sector majors Reliance, Essar, LP Gas marketing companies which include Total-Elf, SHV, Caltex, Shell, Aegis, Vanaz and Clean Fuel and others. On the conversion side, we have OMVL, Vialle, Shrimankar,CLH, BRC. Lovato, Bhiwadi and Longas as members and on the equipment side Larsen and Toubro, MIDCO, Gas Projects and others. IAC plays an important role at a government level as well and has been nominated on various Government of India committees like Central Motor Vehicle Rules –Technical Standing Committee (CMVR-TSC), Standing Committee on Emissions (SCOE) and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). We also have honorary members like Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) and Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD).
For more information, please click here: www.iac.org.in
Indian Autogas Coalition (IAC)
IAC has more than 30 members and growing each year. Members include the Oil sector government owned companies. Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, Integrated Private Sector majors Reliance, Essar, LP Gas marketing companies which include Total-Elf, SHV, Caltex, Shell, Aegis, Vanaz and Clean Fuel and others. On the conversion side, we have OMVL, Vialle, Shrimankar,CLH, BRC. Lovato, Bhiwadi and Longas as members. On the equipment side Larsen and Toubro, MIDCO, Gas Projects and others. IAC has received excellent support and recognition from the Indian government, with IAC being nominated on various Government of India committees like Central Motor Vehicle Rules –Technical Standing Committee (CMVR-TSC), Standing Committee on Emissions (SCOE) and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). IAC also has honorary members like Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) and Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD).
History
The foundation of the association was laid in Dec 2002, wherein US Department of Energy through its Clean Cities International program assisted a trade delegation on a 9 day whirlwind trip across India, wherein we met the oil marketers, transport authorities, vehicle manufacturers, regulators and numerous other stakeholders. By the end of this trip, a working group had been formed. From 2002 to 2004 IAC organized two major all-stakeholder meetings which were very well attended by the Industry players, after which on March 15, 2005, a fully fledged executive committee and office bearers, formally put a legal entity in place. Today, IAC is the only collective voice of auto LP GAS industry stakeholders in India.
