A 56-year-old mechanic in a dusty Cuban town just turned his beat-up 1980 Polski Fiat 126p into a charcoal-powered machine and the 43-second video of it is blowing up online.
In the clip shared by NEXTA, Juan Carlos Pino shovels charcoal into a big homemade tank bolted to the back of his silver Fiat. He points out the pipes and filters he rigged from scrap. Then the little rear-engine car putters down the street like it’s nothing special. Pino, grinning in a green polo shirt, calls it his answer to the fuel mess back home.
“I learned the technique from my uncle who knew about WWII gas generators,”
Pino says in the footage.
“I only built it now because of the fuel shortage. Charcoal is easy to obtain.”
The setup is straight out of history books but built in his backyard workshop. Charcoal burns inside a sealed 60-liter propane tank with almost no oxygen. That creates a combustible gas mostly carbon monoxide and hydrogen which gets cooled, filtered through an old stainless-steel milk jug stuffed with clothes, and fed straight into the Fiat’s original 652cc engine. No gasoline needed.
A tweet from X.
Pino’s rig hits about 70 km/h and can go roughly 85 km on one full load. He rolled it out March 4, 2026, in Aguacate, a small town 70 km east of Havana. Early tests covered the full 85 km distance without a hitch.
Gasoline has been rationed hard since January 2026. Black-market prices hit $8 a liter the equivalent of $30 a gallon in some spots. The trigger: U.S. actions cut off Venezuelan oil shipments after Nicolás Maduro was ousted. Venezuela once supplied about 30 percent of Cuba’s fuel. Now power plants run at half capacity, blackouts last 20 hours in many places, and only 41.5 percent of Havana’s trash trucks are still rolling. Public transport has basically stopped in spots.
Pino, who left school after eighth grade, says he got the idea from his uncle and sites like DriveOnWaste.com. He used whatever lay around: the propane tank, a transformer lid for the top, and that milk-jug filter.
Locals are calling it the “invention of the year.” One resident, Yurisbel Fonseca, told reporters it was “amazing” as neighbors snapped photos and asked Pino to copy the build.
This is not some sci-fi gadget. It’s WWII-era “producer gas” technology. Back then, when petroleum ran dry in Europe, over a million vehicles ran on wood or charcoal gasifiers. The charcoal never touches the engine. It just makes the gas that powers it. Pino’s version is low-tech, cheap, and keeps his Fiat moving when pumps are empty.
Pino’s creation shows classic Cuban resourcefulness the same mindset that keeps vintage cars on the road for decades. Yet it comes with real questions. Safety experts note the toxic carbon monoxide risk if the system leaks. Environmental groups point out charcoal production can speed up deforestation and add to air pollution. And while 85 km is enough for local errands, it’s no match for a full tank of gas on a long haul.
The viral buzz in the U.S. mixes disbelief with respect. Americans scrolling X and TikTok call it “necessity is the mother of invention” while wondering how bad things have to get before people start burning barbecue fuel to get to work.
