JACKSON, Miss.–The Southeast Propane Autogas Roadshow was in Mississippi on Wednesday to show off their propane vehicles.
Right now they’re in the middle of their development program that is one of the largest propane vehicle deployment projects in U.S. history.
“The average costs to convert can be anywhere from $5,500 to $6,500 per vehicle conversion,” said Randy Easterling vice-president of Lampton Love Propane Company.
At first, that number can seem very high but for a fleet of vehicles that drives long miles every day that savings can be recovered by the owner within a year or two according to Easterling. He said for a man that drove 50,000 miles per year doing business it took him nine months to regain that money.
“The big advantage is the cost of the fuel,” he said. “It’s cheap, available, and has no ethanol.”
The costs according to Easterling is around $1.50-1.75 per gallon for propane fuel as compared to around $3.08 per gallon for regular unleaded.
All the vehicles that are converted still have a normal gas tank which cranks the car and is there in case the propane runs out for any reason.
“You wouldn’t even know what fuel you were using unless you looked down on the dashboard at which light was lit up,” he said.
The Mississippi Fire Marshal’s office has been running a test pilot of eight vehicles that were converted over to propane and within one year they have saved $16,000 total. The switch should pay for itself after three years and then that tax payer money will be able to be used for other things.
