Is auto liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) still a realistic fuel for delivery vehicles in India, going by station counts and sales?
Not widely. The Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) Ready Reckoner shows public sector oil companies' auto LPG dispensing stations fell from 651 in 2020-21 to 364 on 1 April 2026, and sales from 118 to 69 thousand tonnes, 82.2 percent of it in the south.
Six years of the same two lines
Table 7.1 (LPG marketing) gives, for public sector oil companies only, the stations and the sales of auto LPG:
- Dispensing stations: 651, 601, 525, 468, 440 and 364, for 2020-21 to 2025-26.
- Sales in thousand tonnes: 118, 122, 107, 88, 73 and 69.
- Stations are down 44 percent and sales down 42 percent over the period.
- Auto LPG is 0.2 percent of public sector LPG sales in 2025-26 (69 / 32,956), and 82.2 percent of those sales were in the southern region.
A second count that does not match
Table 6.9 lists 462 retail outlets with auto LPG on 1 April 2026, from oil companies, against 364 stations in Table 7.1. The note under Table 7.1 says its station data are for public sector oil companies only. Our reading is that the 462 may include other companies, but PPAC does not say. By state the 462 are led by Karnataka 117, Tamil Nadu 91, Telangana 51, Maharashtra 37 and Kerala 35, so the south holds 305 of them.
What LPG does to the emission arithmetic
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2006 road defaults, Table 3.2.1, give carbon dioxide (CO2) of 63,100 kilograms per terajoule for LPG against 74,100 for diesel, so per unit of energy LPG is 14.8 percent lower. In Table 3.2.2 its default methane is higher, 62 kilograms per terajoule against 3.9 for diesel, and that LPG value has no uncertainty range (note g, from 3.1 grams of methane per kilogram). Its nitrous oxide default goes the other way, 0.2 against 3.9 for diesel. The methane difference is small next to the CO2 gap: 62 x 28 = 1,736 kilograms of CO2 equivalent per terajoule (AR5 warming potential), against a CO2 gap of 11,000 kilograms per terajoule. Per kilometre the result also depends on the engine, so use your own litres or kilograms, not these per-energy figures, for a vehicle.
Before you buy an LPG vehicle
With 364 public sector stations (462 outlets in the other count) and 82.2 percent of sales in the south, check the stations on your route and their opening hours before you commit. If an LPG fleet already runs, keep every fuel slip: the kilograms or litres on it are the activity data.
The decline and the CO2 gap, worked
- Stations: 364 / 651 = 0.559, so down 44 percent
- Sales: 69 / 118 = 0.585, so down 42 percent (41.5 before rounding)
- Auto LPG share of sales: 69 / 32,956 = 0.21 percent of public sector LPG sales (PPAC prints 0.2 percent of total LPG)
- LPG against diesel, CO2 per terajoule: 63,100 / 74,100 = 0.852, so 14.8 percent lower
- Methane default, LPG against diesel: 62 / 3.9 = 15.9 times
Station and sales figures are PPAC's. The IPCC factors are per unit of energy and are defaults, not per-kilometre figures.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, so LPG bought for vehicles shows up once the bills are uploaded. It does not locate stations or compare engines.
- CNG truck against diesel truck
- Compressed natural gas stations in India
- Fleet fuel card statement as evidence
- Free calculators
Sources: Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, PPAC Ready Reckoner, year 2025-26, IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2, Chapter 3 Mobile Combustion (Tables 3.2.1 and 3.2.2)
Last reviewed 2026-11-05. Station and sales figures are from PPAC Ready Reckoner 2025-26 Tables 6.9 and 7.1 (public sector oil companies for Table 7.1); IPCC factors are 2006 defaults. The explanation of the 364 and 462 gap is our reading.