Fiat Tipo LPG: buy one, get one free

© FiatA family car should be practical and a factory-fitted autogas system adds greatly to Tipo's practicality!

All of this will happen only if you live in France, but still please don't be discouraged and read on. In fact, even in Poland, where there are 3 million autogas-powered cars and the fuel needs hardly any further promotion, many dealers offer free LPG systems once in a while, so chances are you'll be able to buy a Tipo like the one here at a certain moment. Just be patient. Now back to the point.

In France an initiative like this one is actually aimed at encouraging motorists to consider switching from conventional fuels to autogas. Big as that country is, it has only 262 thousand LPG-powered cars circulating on its roads. There are efforts taken to change this status quo (e.g. autogas vehicles are always allowed to be driven in Paris, irrespective of air quality and there are tax breaks available for fleets), but clearly more are required.

Fiat came up with the idea of offering autogas systems for all bodystyles of the Tipo (sedan, hatchback and estate) at no additional cost. The car is priced the same as the petrol-only equivalent (between 16690 and 18090 euros, depending on bodystyle and trim), which means saving 1500 euros for a start (the LPG system's regular price) and slashing fuel bills by 50% from the first kilometre driven (autogas costs approx. 0,75 euro/l, while petrol is priced at 1,39 euro/l).

If only autogas in France was offered at more fuel stations than the current 1750 out of 10 thousand overall... At least that's a start and hopefully the market will now develop quicker than before.