What to surprise a gas station attendant with? Top 5 unusual cars from the car market in 2025

The Ukrainian automotive market is not only about bestsellers like the Passat B7 or Skoda Octavia. Sometimes there are instances that make experts put down their cup of coffee and stare at the screen with slight surprise. Yes, these are exceptions, but they allow us to look at the market through the lens of creativity, flexibility and... a little economy.

Here are five categories (plus one bonus) of real exceptions that donʼt appear in the reports of major automakers. Some are just interesting, others are admirable, and some defy logic. But all are real, taken from our secondary market registration data this year.

1. Gas + electric: there is no smell of gasoline here

When our analysts saw the entry "gas+electric" in the registration database, they almost shouted in unison — did someone really put HBO on a Tesla? Fortunately (or vice versa), it turned out that this was not a mistake, but a completely real car: a Hyundai Avante LPI Hybrid, imported from Korea.

Under its hood is a combination unique to our market: an internal combustion engine powered by liquefied gas and an electric motor. The fuel supply system is LPI (Liquefied Petroleum Injection) — a factory technology for injecting propane-butane (LPG) in the liquid phase, widely used in Korea. In the North American context, this same abbreviation is sometimes deciphered as Liquid Propane Injection, but the essence is the same — there was no smell of gasoline here.

You could say itʼs a technical emigrant — a relative of the well-known Sonata LPI, only in a more compact body and with a traction battery. Isnʼt it a true symbol of economy: no turbines, a minimum of complexity — only gas, electricity and the "atmospheric" engine beloved by Ukrainians.

2. Gasodiesel: itʼs too late to call an exorcist

Few people remember, but in the late USSR, enthusiastic researchers tried to power diesel engines with a mixture of diesel and gas. And although most of such experiments remained in textbooks and in the hangars of technical schools, in some places this technomagic is still alive. In 2025, a series of purchase and sale transactions took place on our "second-hand" market for several dozen such works of applied engineering art: MAN, DAF, Scania, PAZ, GAZ 2705 — the whole set from local convoys and European "fleets" of experimenters.

But the most surprising was the 2018 Audi A6 with a 3.0 TDI engine, which modestly stated in the “fuel” column: “diesel or gas.” In such cases, they usually say: there are only two questions — how and why. And we will most likely not get answers to them. Unless we assume: this is a kind of manifesto against electric cars. Maybe.

3. Hydrogen: futurism without refueling

Toyota Mirai is one of the symbols of faith in hydrogen technology. But in Ukraine, it is more of an object for the “antiquarian and optimist” club. After all, the nearest gas station is in Warsaw. And judging by the news from Infocar, even in the USA, hydrogen infrastructure causes more disappointment than convenience. What prompted several Ukrainians to import Mirai? Hope, adventurism, or banal inattention? But in any case, it is a rare car on the market, and not just a fuel experiment. In the ad for one of them, we found the following profound words: “there is still some hydrogen for a test drive…”.

4. Premium with HBO: I need 200 hryvnias worth of gas...

Is there an instruction that prohibits owners of premium cars from saving on fuel? And if it is not prohibited, then it is allowed. This is apparently what several dozen Ukrainian drivers who installed gas cylinder equipment on Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, Hummer, and even Maserati thought.

And what? Driving is easy, costs are lower, and when you really want to "give it gas" (but not whatʼs in the tank) — you can always return to gasoline by pressing the "back to the future" button, that is, set the selector to gasoline. Business class is a business solution.

5. Turbo-economy: when 0.8 liters is not the limit

What happens if you take a car with an engine of less than 1 liter and put a gas tank on it? Do you think itʼs like trying to charge an iPhone with lightning? No, you will get super-turbo-economy. In the resold lists, we found more than two dozen Daewoo Matiz, as well as Smart Fortwo, VW Up!, Ford Fiesta, Peugeot 107, and similar microcars with gas tank. This is the case when even a cyclist will look back with respect: it is not often that you have the opportunity to overtake a car that consumes less than a 2-liter electric kettle in the office.

The only open question is what these people do with a tube of toothpaste when it runs out: do they squeeze the remains out with a hydraulic press or evaporate them with boiling water?

Bonus — gas hybrids: for those who just canʼt find one compromise enough

When a hybrid is not enough, some people also put "gas". What comes of this is a mystery to engineers and service station masters. However, several dozen Prius, Fusion, RAV4, as well as Lexus NX, BMW X6M (!) and even Cadillac ELR on gas have "lit up" on the market. The drivers of these cars probably donʼt listen to the radio, but whisper to themselves how much cheaper this trip in a private car turned out to be than a trolleybus ticket.

Which, in the end, is not a disadvantage at all, and quite the opposite — such people should be hired by the Ministry of Economy without a resume, only upon presentation of the technical passport for such a car. Because if they were able to overcome the instructions, electronics, and reach the final, then they can optimize anything.

These stories are evidence of the flexibility of our car market. Here, each number is not just an entry in the database, but a step towards savings, creativity, or an inner need to be special. And even if some of these cars make you smile, they definitely leave a mark in your memory. Just like good analytics.

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