KEY POINTS
- Three years after the CNG push began, private car dealers still largely favour petrol vehicles due to weak demand.
- High vehicle prices, conversion costs and safety concerns are discouraging consumers from choosing CNG cars.
- Dealers say stronger government awareness campaigns, incentives and demand are needed to expand CNG adoption.
Three years after the Federal Government began promoting compressed natural gas, CNG, as a cheaper alternative to petrol, the initiative has yet to gain significant traction among private car buyers and automobile dealers.
While commercial buses and tricycles are increasingly being converted to CNG, petrol remains the dominant fuel for private vehicles. A market survey by TheCable found that automobile dealers invested billions of naira importing vehicles into Nigeria in 2025, but petrol-powered cars accounted for most of the purchases.
Only one private vehicle powered by both CNG and petrol was reportedly imported among the dealers surveyed.
Automobile dealers say the biggest obstacle is simple: there is little or no demand from customers.
Femi Oladipupo, manager of LongVille Auto, said his company experimented with a CNG-petrol-powered Toyota Corolla imported in 2025. However, the vehicle remained unsold for about a year.
According to Oladipupo, the company sold about 15 petrol-powered cars while the CNG vehicle remained in its car lot. Eventually, he started using the vehicle himself.
The experience has discouraged the dealer from investing in CNG vehicles again, as he does not want to tie down capital in cars that could remain unsold for extended periods.
Dealers prefer petrol because of proven demand
Gbenga Ashaolu, founder of God’s Help Autos International Limited, said his company invested more than N1 billion in vehicle imports in 2025 but focused entirely on petrol-powered cars.
He explained that automobile dealers are primarily driven by customer demand and cannot justify importing vehicles for which there is little market interest.
Morenike Adefehinti, manager of Atlantic Biscoe, expressed a similar position, saying nobody had visited her car lot to ask for a CNG-powered vehicle.
She said the company would only consider testing the market if several customers began requesting CNG cars. Until then, ordering such vehicles would expose the business to unnecessary financial risk. Dealers are also worried about what happens when CNG vehicles remain unsold for long periods.
Adefehinti noted that petrol vehicles can remain in a car lot for years and generally return to service after routine maintenance. However, dealers have limited experience with how CNG systems perform when vehicles remain unused for extended periods.
That uncertainty makes dealers even more reluctant to invest in CNG-powered cars, particularly at a time when automobile prices are already high.
The higher purchase price of CNG-powered vehicles is another major barrier to adoption.
Oladipupo said the CNG-petrol vehicle his company imported was more expensive than comparable petrol-powered cars because of its fuel-efficiency technology.
For price-conscious Nigerian consumers, he said, the choice can become straightforward: if one vehicle costs N10 million while a CNG model costs N12 million, many buyers would prefer the cheaper petrol option despite the potential long-term savings from CNG.
Dealers say this price difference makes it difficult to convince customers to embrace an unfamiliar technology.
