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LPG forklift fuel cost exposure: what a gas-price move does to your fleet

An LPG forklift fleet is not insulated from the wholesale gas story — bottled LPG comes from the same east-coast gas market that sets industrial contract prices. Here is what that exposure actually looks like in running-cost terms, and why it is a real factor behind fleets moving to electric.

Last updated 2026-08-24

The connection most fleet decisions skip over

LPG is a byproduct of the same gas production that supplies industrial and residential gas contracts, and its retail price moves with the same underlying market covered in east-coast gas prices. A forklift fleet running on LPG is therefore carrying gas-market exposure even if nobody in the business signs a gas contract directly — the exposure just shows up as a cylinder refill invoice instead of a utility bill.

That distinction matters because a cylinder refill invoice does not obviously look like an energy-market cost. It looks like a routine consumable, which makes it easy to keep buying the same way for years without noticing the underlying price trend it is riding.

What LPG forklifts actually cost to run

For a 5-tonne forklift on single-shift operation, industry cost guides put annual LPG running costs at $15,000–$29,000, of which $9,000–$18,000 is fuel. An equivalent electric forklift runs $6,000–$13,000 a year all-in, of which $3,000–$7,000 is energy — roughly half the total cost, and less than half the fuel component. Electric typically breaks even on total cost of ownership within 2.5 to 3.5 years for indoor single-shift use, and the same cost guide models roughly $45,000–$77,500 saved over five years for electric against a diesel comparison.

A 15kg LPG cylinder refill typically costs $60–$110 and runs a forklift for roughly six to ten hours of continuous operation (1.5–2.5kg an hour), so the per-shift fuel cost is straightforward to work out against your own operating hours.

Autogas price is a related but different market

National average LPG autogas price sat at 110.2 cents a litre as of 6 August 2026, ranging from 84.9c/L to 288.7c/L by region, with Victoria the cheapest average at 101.6c/L. That figure is for vehicle refuelling at the bowser, not bottled or bulk LPG sold specifically for forklift cylinder refills — a related market riding the same underlying gas price, but not the same product or the same price. Treat autogas figures as a directional signal for where LPG pricing sits, not a substitute for your own cylinder supplier's quote.

Cylinder storage and refill logistics are also a genuine site-planning question, not just a cost one — bottled LPG storage has to be sited and ventilated correctly, which is worth checking against your building specification before assuming a fleet swap is a drop-in change.

Is this what is driving electrification?

The running-cost gap above exists independent of any gas price move — electric has been cheaper to run than LPG for a while on the figures above. What a gas-price rise does is widen that gap further and shorten the payback period on switching, which makes the electrification case easier to justify to a finance team even where it was already true on paper. See electric versus LPG versus diesel forklifts for the full comparison beyond running cost, and lithium versus lead-acid batteries for what changes once a fleet has already gone electric.

Fuel cost is one input into a fleet decision, not the only one. Cylinder handling and storage, refuelling time against charging time, and duty cycle across a hired versus owned fleet all interact with the running-cost numbers above, and a full fleet review should weigh all of them rather than fuel cost alone. Switching a fleet to electric also has a side effect worth planning for: a bank of chargers plugging in together at shift change is a common way to trigger a peak-demand charge, so a charging schedule is worth designing alongside the fleet decision, not after it.

  • 5-tonne LPG forklift, single shift: $15,000–$29,000/yr total, $9,000–$18,000 fuel
  • Equivalent electric forklift: $6,000–$13,000/yr total, $3,000–$7,000 energy
  • 15kg LPG cylinder refill: $60–$110, lasting roughly 6–10 hours
  • LPG autogas averaged 110.2c/L nationally as at 6 August 2026 — a related, not identical, market

Common questions

Does LPG forklift fuel move with the same gas prices industrial buyers pay?
It comes from the same underlying east-coast gas market, so it carries the same broad price direction, though bottled LPG for forklifts and industrial gas contracts are separately priced products.
How much does it cost to run a 5-tonne LPG forklift for a year?
Industry cost guides put it at $15,000–$29,000 annually for single-shift operation, of which $9,000–$18,000 is fuel — roughly double the equivalent figure for an electric forklift.
Is autogas price the same as bottled LPG for forklifts?
No — autogas is priced and sold for vehicle refuelling at the bowser. Bottled or bulk LPG for forklift cylinders is a related but separately priced market; use your own supplier's quote for forklift budgeting.
Should rising gas prices be the deciding factor in switching to electric forklifts?
It is one factor among several — duty cycle, charging versus refuelling time, and fleet hire versus purchase terms all matter too — but it does widen an already-existing running-cost gap in electric's favour.

Sources

Part of our guide to industrial energy costs.

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