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I lived in Australia for a few years and I knew that they sold gas (LPG), diesel and petrol in stations.

I am not a car expert, but it seems that when you buy your car in Australia, you need to ask if the car runs on gas, diesel and petrol.

When it comes to English, in many countries, people say "fill up with petrol" but American people might say "fill up with gas (petrol)".

In the USA, do you say "my car runs on LPG gas" or just "my car runs on gas" if your car runs on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or autogas that is liquid compressed from gas air used for cooking?

Some people in the USA say "my car runs on propane" but "propane" doesn't sound like an easy word.

Fivesideddice
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Tom
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    Propane is the most common term in the US for LPG. https://afdc.energy.gov/vehicles/propane.html – ColleenV Jul 21 '21 at 12:44
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    Propane is a common word. It is a common fuel for gas barbecues. Recreational vehicles often have a propane stove, and many homes (especially in suburbs and rural areas) have a large propane tank that fuels the stove, water heater, and furnace. – Jeffrey Carney Jul 21 '21 at 12:51
  • @JeffreyCarney Businesses have fleets of propane fueled vehicles too, especially forklifts. – ColleenV Jul 21 '21 at 13:27
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    As a native American English speaker, I've never even heard the term LPG. A car running on propane would be very rare in the US and not accommodated at most service stations. Propane is mostly used as a heating fuel, and sometimes, as ColleenV notes, to power smaller specialized commercial vehicles like forklifts. – Seth R Jul 21 '21 at 20:48
  • As in https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/8299/what-is-the-difference-between-gas-petrol-benzine-gasoline/291933#291933 (a possible dupe) "Autogas" is a term used in the USA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogas However it is virtually unavailable – James K Jul 21 '21 at 22:36
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    Although propane in private vehicles is rare, it's quite common in commercial fleets, especially for shuttles and buses, because fuel costs are similar to diesel, but maintenance costs are lower. – barbecue Jul 21 '21 at 22:47
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    A quick google for lpg cars in usa turns up several pages which suggest propane and autogas are the terms used, but they're relatively uncommon so less well known: https://www.glpautogas.info/us/new-lpg-propane-cars-wagons-sedans-suvs-for-sale.html , https://gazeo.com/up-to-date/news/2017/LPG-car-sales-up-in-the-US,article,9708.html , https://www.liveabout.com/propane-vehicles-available-85009 – Stobor Jul 22 '21 at 06:39
  • In the UK the term "LPG" would be most common with "Autogas" being a recognised equivalent (or brand name?). I had a series of such cars in the past. Many of out Jet Skis also run on this fuel but I am not sure if it is called something besides LPG in these cases. Not an answer as it is about the wrong country all be it another one where a form of English is widely spoken with widespread representation in on and off line media. – TafT Jul 22 '21 at 10:46
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    I've never heard the term "autogas" before this thread either. I suspect most Americans would be confused by this word and assume you are referring to "gas" for an "auto", ie gasoline or petrol. – Seth R Jul 22 '21 at 14:09
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    As an American, I've heard "LP gas" all the time, but almost never "LPG" or "LPG gas". – supercat Jul 22 '21 at 15:00
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    No one in the US has a car that runs on propane, or claims to, either. And by no one, I mean about 200k vehicles in the US run on propane, or about 0.07% (yes, not 7%, but 0.07%) of all cars in the US run on propane. If you say "my car runs on propane" to someone in the US you have a statistically greater than 99.9% chance of having them look at you like you are crazy. In the US we use propane for stoves/grilling/heating, not driving. – TylerH Jul 22 '21 at 19:41
  • @SethR as a native speaker and resident of the USA, I've heard the term LPG since my teens (but I live in "oil country"), and known since the 1990s that buses use LPG, and forklifts use propane (same thing, but at lower pressure). – RonJohn Jul 22 '21 at 22:32
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    @RonJohn: Likewise, except that I've never lived in oil country. One of my first jobs, in the 1970s, involved operating fairly heavy equipment that ran on LPG. That, or "natural gas", seems the most common term. Propane isn't, because it is a different product: a single component of LNG (formula C3H8) that's sold for use in stoves, home heating, and a variety of other uses, but not AFAIK in internal combustion engines. – jamesqf Jul 22 '21 at 22:40
  • As an Australian, if someone referring to LPG as "gas" I'd assume they're American. It's just called LPG in my experience! – curiousdannii Jul 23 '21 at 05:28
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    @curiousdannii as a native-speaking and native-resident American, I would never refer to LPG as "gas". Because it's a liquid. That's why it's LPG. – RonJohn Jul 23 '21 at 15:03
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    As an American, I've never heard of a mass-market vehicle running on propane. I have heard of buses running on it, but I would suspect that the vast majority of Americans have never heard of using propane as a vehicular fuel; it's basically exclusively seen as a cooking fuel over here, something you'd use for a propane grill. – Hearth Jul 23 '21 at 15:09
  • @Hearth: That's because there are no mass market vehicles running on LPG. (As noted above, propane is a different product.) Road vehicles are almost always conversions, or perhaps specially produced versions of vehicles that normally run on gasoline. – jamesqf Jul 23 '21 at 18:31
  • @jamesqf I would assume there are mass-market vehicles running on LPG, just not in the US--the person asking this question appears to have one! – Hearth Jul 24 '21 at 00:15
  • Slightly off-subject, but ask for 'petrol(e)' in France, and you get paraffin! Since LPG and propane are recognised as pretty well the same, the words are used in most of the world synonymously. Although butane is also LPG, and often, then, LPG is actually a mix of propane and butane - depending where in the world, and what season (temperature-wise). – Tim Jul 24 '21 at 09:40
  • OP, up to you but it's bizarre that you checked the only answer provided that did not answer your question. This fuel is called propane in American English and you should select an answer that actually says that quickly and directly. – lly Jul 24 '21 at 10:45
  • @Hearth: Could be. I don't know about the rest of the world, but the question is asking about the US. – jamesqf Jul 24 '21 at 17:17

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LPG would typically be called propane or autogas in the United States. It may also be known as LPG, just as in other countries.

There's a lot of folks here telling you that propane/LPG isn't used as a vehicle fuel in the United States.

They are wrong.

It was used a lot on farms to power tractors and pickup trucks. I remember farm kids telling me how they'd cool their drinks while working in the fields in the summer by venting a blast of propane from the (tractor or pickup) tank onto the bottle. That had to be done carefully - too little and it wouldn't cool, too much and the bottle would cool so fast it'd burst.

There are still lots of people using propane in the USA. This page from the U.S. Department of Energy details current usage - mostly in fleets, but some personal vehicles. That page also mentions that it is also called "autogas."

This page shows fuelling station availability across the USA and Canada. There's 1241 publicly accessible fuelling stations for LPG in the USA. That's far more than for liquefied natural gas (55 stations) though far less than bio-ethanol (3962.)

It might not be common, or even commonly known, but propane/LPG is known and used in the USA.

Farms usually had a large propane tank that would be filled by a local delivery company.

Tractors and pickups could be refueled from the large tank, and not need to go to town for fueling. They didn't need a fuelling station - they just fuelled up "at home."

JRE
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    This isn't really an answer to the OP's question - it's more like an attack on other people's comments. As this is an English language site and not a fuel availability site, I don't think this answer is on-topic. – Astralbee Jul 22 '21 at 08:32
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    Read the first sentence. It gives the commonly used names for LPG in the US. There are also links to the US Department of Energy showing the terms in use. – JRE Jul 22 '21 at 08:33
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    As well, the other "answer" doesn't answer the question at all. It attempts to rule out some terms (LPG gas being redundant, for example,) while providing some "may be" terms (gas, petrol) that are umbrella terms, but not specific terms. – JRE Jul 22 '21 at 08:36
  • the other answer has been accepted by the OP so they must think it addresses their question, which wasn't "what do Americans call LPG". In their question, they even mention that other people call it autogas or propane. I perceived that they weren't looking for the term, rather asking if their suggestion would be understood and why. – Astralbee Jul 22 '21 at 12:15
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    @Astralbee: Here's the actual question: "In the USA, do you say "my car runs on LPG gas" or just "my car runs on gas" - That's what I answered. You call it propane or autogas or LPG. Your answer waffles on about what it isn't and what else you could could call it but not what people do call it. – JRE Jul 22 '21 at 12:21
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    "Propane", I've definitely heard all the time. "Autogas", I haven't. (Spent significant chunks of my life in California, Texas, and Illinois). – Charles Duffy Jul 22 '21 at 17:28
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    ~1200 stations is very little. In my city of over 1 million people there's only one. There are more than 150,000 fueling stations in the USA alone. So less than 1% of the stations are propane fueling stations. You say "lots of people" use propane vehicles, your source says only 200,000 vehicles out of 276 million are fueled by propane, less than 1 in 1000 and most of them in commercial fleets... – Aubreal Jul 22 '21 at 21:22
  • Given how uncommon they are, it isn't wrong to say that it isn't used for personal vehicles. – Aubreal Jul 22 '21 at 21:22
  • @CharlesDuffy I haven't heard autogas either (I'm in Canada), then again it's not uncommon for governmental agencies to use terms that aren't used by the general public in its publications (especially when making an "also known as" remark). – Aubreal Jul 22 '21 at 21:29
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    The only thing I've ever heard called "autogas" or "cargas" in the U.S. is normal gasoline (i.e. what Brits would call "petrol.") If you say "autogas" people in the U.S. will normally not think LPG. In aviation circles "autogas"/"cargas" is typically used to differentiate between normal gasoline blended for use in cars (which some light airplanes also use) vs. 100LL aviation gasoline (a.k.a. "avgas" or just "100LL.") – reirab Jul 22 '21 at 21:36
  • Open a propane tank valve with the bottle slightly neck down on a downhill slope will result in rapid cooling at the bottle neck and soon liquid LPG will runb down the hillside. Ask me how I know :-). NO MATCHES !!! :-) – Russell McMahon Jul 23 '21 at 12:06
  • @AlexandreAubrey that's public propane filling stations. Propane is way more likely to be filled from things like big Propane tanks on farms that's also used for other stuff(which is the use case where it makes sense). One place where I've personally seen converted trucks with connected Propane cylinders in the bed regularly is the service trucks at various out of the way resorts, where they have a big propane cylinders to sell refills for customers anyway. And the nomenclature here, PNW, is "my truck can run on Propane". – Eugene Jul 24 '21 at 05:43
  • Everyone seems to be missing the huge environmental benefits to LPG. It burns much cleaner then petrol/diesel and emits almost no hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide or soot. Its also a much more dense fuel so you get better bang for your buck. The main reason its not used as much in the US most likely the oil lobby. – max Jul 24 '21 at 17:36
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As the 'G' in 'LPG' stands for 'gas', to say "LPG gas" would be a tautology in British or Australian English. In American English, it would just be confusing.

The American use of 'gas' for what British and Australian English speakers call 'petrol' is an abbreviation of gasoline. Other territories call LPG 'gas' because it actually is a mixture of hydrocarbon gases such as propane and butane, in liquid form. So to call 'LPG' a type of gasoline would be incorrect.

You should just refer to it as 'LPG' (or whatever other term seems to be used in the area you are living in/visiting - comments have suggested that some Americans refer to it as propane or autogas... it seems like nobody can agree on what it's definitely called) so as not to confuse it with gasoline. Similarly, you wouldn't say "diesel gas" - you'd just say "diesel".

I have found that some people use "petrol" or "gas" as an umbrella term for all kinds of fuel - in the UK and the USA places that vend fuel are called petrol stations and gas stations respectively. But most people will use the specific term for the kind of fuel their vehicle uses, to avoid confusion and for correctness. If you want an umbrella term for all these things then use 'fuel'.

Astralbee
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    I'd add, as someone living in the US, I've never met someone who owned a personal vehicle running on propane (LPG), nor seen a public fueling station for it. I'm sure they both exist and happen, but I've lived in 3 states, and been to probably 20+ without it being acknowledged in any manner. There's even very few diesel engines outside of semi's, work trucks, and the occasional VW owner. I believe we default to 'gas' for the British/Australian 'petrol' because it's short, easy, and utterly ubiquitous. I've never heard a refueling location called anything other than a 'gas station' – TCooper Jul 21 '21 at 20:41
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    The use of ‘petrol’ in ‘petrol station’ doesn't mean that ‘petrol’ is being used to cover other types of fuel; ‘petrol station’ has simply become a more general term (a metonym) — in the same way that a fish & chip shop may sell many other foods besides fish and chips. – gidds Jul 21 '21 at 21:16
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    I'm going to slightly disagree with the first paragraph. In American English, "LPG" isn't a widely known initialism, so saying "LPG gas" would be fine. Also, while I agree it's redundant, we use these all the time and I wouldn't say it causes confusion...e.g. "ATM Machine", "Pin Number", "Please RSVP", "DC Comics", "UPC Code", etc – BruceWayne Jul 21 '21 at 21:18
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    I've seen a few CNG (compressed natural gas) cars and at least two CNG fuel stations near where I live, but I don't know that I've ever seen an LPG car or station. – Darth Pseudonym Jul 21 '21 at 22:40
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    @BruceWayne "In American English, "LPG" isn't a widely known initialism, so saying "LPG gas" would be fine." Yeah, it's just called "natural gas" instead. – nick012000 Jul 22 '21 at 03:42
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    @nick012000, Natural gas is very difficult to liquify because it is mostly methane. Propane is the major component of LPG. Natural gas is generally in reticulation systems because it is better and safer than coal gas, which is substantally carbon monoxide. – Peter Jul 22 '21 at 06:23
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    Y'all may have never seen propane (or LPG) powered anything, but it is used as vehicle fuel all over the United States. – JRE Jul 22 '21 at 07:32
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    @BruceWayne The potential confusion in AmE is that if the person you are talking to doesn't know what LPG is, they might think "LPG gas" is a type of gasoline, which it isn't. It's not the redundancy that's the issue, it's the two different meanings of "gas". – Especially Lime Jul 22 '21 at 10:17
  • @BruceWayne Given your ID, fun to see DC Comics in your list. – chux - Reinstate Monica Jul 22 '21 at 13:20
  • "I have found that some people use "petrol" or "gas" as an umbrella term for all kinds of fuel" I've seen people refer to sandwiches as gas. – DKNguyen Jul 22 '21 at 13:56
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    @TCooper I think I've seen gas stations that advertise propane, but since I've never heard of a car running on propane, I think it's generally for tanks for barbecues. – Barmar Jul 22 '21 at 14:33
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    As an American, I've not heard "LPG gas", but rather "LP gas" [no redundant G] or "propane". – supercat Jul 22 '21 at 14:58
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    @BruceWayne people may say "ATM machine" and "PIN number" all the time, but that doesn't make it any less of a tautology, and it grates every time I hear it. – randomhead Jul 22 '21 at 15:43
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    @TCooper, growing up in the 1980s, my father worked for Pacific Gas & Electric, and the company truck they issued him was powered by natural gas. That said, I don't think he was able to fuel it up anywhere but work. (And getting back to topic: as an American, I'd expect the word "propane" to be used when that's the specific fuel at hand; it's not rare or uncommon as a fuel, even if it's unusual to be used to power personal/consumer-accessible vehicles here). – Charles Duffy Jul 22 '21 at 17:26
  • @randomhead does it also grate when they drive on your parkway or park in your drive way? – candied_orange Jul 22 '21 at 19:45
  • @CharlesDuffy definitely, I've had several propane grills over the years, and use it regularly in outdoor fire pits, etc. Just very rarely in terms of vehicles – TCooper Jul 22 '21 at 20:00
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    @nick012000 Natural gas is a different fuel, not the same as LPG/liquid propane. Both are mostly used for heating/cooking in the U.S. (and, in the case of natural gas, also for electricity production,) but they are rather different fuels. – reirab Jul 22 '21 at 22:00
  • Nitpick: LPG is a liquid. LPG Gas is the gas when you vapouise LPG. Its the G thatyou liquefy to make LPG-liquid. Yes? – Russell McMahon Jul 23 '21 at 01:19
  • @BruceWayne I'd have to disagree with your disagreement. Nobody would call it "LPG gas" - in the UK, we say one or the other. "Gas" is the common term, "LPG" the technical term. And the technical term is widely known and used - it is how the pumps are labelled at fuelling stations. – Astralbee Jul 23 '21 at 09:59
  • Datapoint: LPG may be a mix of Propane and Butane or just straight Propane. Butane has a lower thermal content. – Russell McMahon Jul 23 '21 at 12:04
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The most common term in spoken American English is "propane". Sometimes you will see "LP gas" or "LPG", but usually in written materials like manuals and labels. I've never heard the term "autogas" until today.

Few personal vehicles run on propane, and while there are many places where propane cylinders can be purchased or refilled, I've never noticed a public station selling propane for cars, but they do exist. There isn't one in the city of 100,000 people where I live. Some city busses or other fleets run on propane or sometimes natural gas, but these have private refueling stations.

In American English, "gas" is short for "gasoline". It's a liquid (not a gas) and what would be called petrol elsewhere.

Diesel is still just diesel. Cars running on diesel are less common in the US, but they do exist. Most gas stations sell diesel, mostly for larger pickup trucks and the large semi trucks used to commercially transport large trailers.

Phil Frost
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    I hear "LPG" very occasionally, and "LP gas" almost never. I agree that "propane" is vastly more common than either, and I also had never heard the term "autogas". (Every so often you'll catch a reference to petrol, but that's certainly not a common term here as elsewhere.) – Charles Jul 22 '21 at 19:14
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    @Charles At least in the Southeast, the term "LP" or "LP gas" (LP = "Liquid Propane") is used commonly by propane vendors, particularly in the context of use of propane as a heating or cooking fuel. I have never heard it called "autogas" aside from in the other answer on this question, though. As an American, I would translate "autogas" to "gasoline for cars," not "liquid propane." – reirab Jul 22 '21 at 21:44
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    As someone who lives in the south and is widely traveled throughout the US, I've never heard the acronym "LP". However, I have heard the term "liquid propane" spelled out. But it's usually just called "propane", with no need to clarify that it's been compressed into a liquid form. – Cody Gray - on strike Jul 22 '21 at 23:24
  • @CodyGray: The irony is that "LP" actually stands for "liquefied petroleum", rather than "liquid propane", despite the fact that the substance in question is, in fact, liquid propane, as opposed to being a petroleum derivative which needs to be liquefied under pressure because it would not otherwise be liquid. – supercat Jul 23 '21 at 14:45
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"My car runs on propane" is the correct phrase. Americans are familiar with the term "propane".

If an American is confused when you say "my car runs on propane", it's not because of your language usage, it's because in America it's very rare for a car to run on propane, as others state.

Stadem
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The common term for that fuel in the United States of America is "propane".

The fuel is much more commonly used in grills than automobiles.

The term "propane" is commonly used, it's firmly established in pop culture, for example the animated series King of the Hill.

cartoon showing Strickland Propane company

(Image source: King of the Hill wiki)

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Diesel is diesel, petrol is gas (as in gasoline), and LPG is propane.

In the US you either say, "My car runs on gas." or "My car runs on diesel." However, the general term is "gas". Even if the car runs on diesel, most people will still say, "I need to go get some gas." We only make the distinction if there's a need to. You can also say "fuel", it's somewhat regional which term is more common.

I don't think I've ever seen a personal vehicle that runs on propane. Certainly not a typical car or truck from a dealership. Some fleet vehicles like city buses run on natural gas, but those are still uncommon here.

In the US, propane is mostly sold in small tanks to run heaters and stoves for campers, grills, and other portable appliances. Gas stations (and some grocery stores) have it setup so you drop off a spent tank and pick up a fresh one, but there are places where you can refill your own as well.

In terms of personal vehicles, there is pretty much just gas and diesel here. We only use unleaded gas and that's split into octanes (89, 91, 93) and ethanol flex-fuel blends (the ethanol distinction only matters if you have a really old car though).

interduo
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    Propane is sold in very large quantities in the U.S., too, particularly for heating. For example, my house is about 1/2 mile past where the local city's natural gas lines run, so people who want gas heating here have 500 gallon propane tanks (that's just under 1,900 liters, for those of you outside the U.S.) Those tanks are permanent installations, though, and local propane vendors have tanker trucks that they bring by occasionally to fill your tank. You don't just go to a gas station and by 500 gallons of propane. – reirab Jul 22 '21 at 21:48