Kenya has no immediate plans of controlling prices of liquefied petroleum gas used to power vehicles and will instead monitor uptake before making a decision on capping.
The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) says that the uptake of autogas is still at its nascent stages and introduction of price caps could hurt its consumption.
Kenya has an estimated 20,000 vehicles running on autogas, making it the most widely used clean energy in the transport sector ahead of electricity.
Epra currently controls prices of Super petrol, diesel and kerosene with caps meant to protect consumers given the mass usage of the fuels in driving the economy.
“Economic regulation of the sector through price setting has not begun since the industry is at its nascent stages,” Epra said in a response to this publication.
“There are about 20,000 vehicles running on autogas. So far, about nine stations have been approved and are operational,” Epra said.
The rise in the number of vehicles being converted to use autogas has been attributed to lower costs of the commodity at a time when prices of diesel and Super petrol have remained high.
An autogas tank can hold between 20 to 25 litres of fuel and a litre can power a vehicle for 12 kilometres.
A litre of autogas is averaging Sh97 in Nairobi where a majority of the autogas-powered vehicles are currently in use.
A litre of Super petrol is retailing at Sh193.84 while that of diesel is at Sh180.38.
The base cost for a unit of power is Sh16 under the electric mobility tariff that was introduced in April last year.
Autogas and electric engines are the two clean modes of transport and whose popularity has been on a spike in the race to curb carbon emissions from the sector. There are 3,753 electric vehicles in the country.
The use of autogas on vehicles was piloted in Kenya six years ago and its popularity, like that of electric vehicles, is projected to remain on a steady climb in the wake of costly petrol and diesel.
Kenya, like the rest of the world, is in the electric mobility race and targets to have five percent of all new vehicles registered to be electricity-powered, as part of the global efforts to cut carbon emissions and stem adverse climatic change.
The country has set an ambitious target of having five percent of all new vehicle registrations by the end of next year, be powered by clean fuel (autogas or electricity).
