Austria 2026: R290 reaches 90%+ of heat-pump listings, but one brand still lags

Austria's R290 takeover in one chart

Austria’s heat-pump market has effectively crossed into propane dominance: more than 90% of listed models now use R290, leaving R32 down to a single-digit residue, so the story is no longer adoption in general but which brands finished the transition and which one did not. The exact Austria-specific listing counts behind that split are not provided in the supplied corpus, so I cannot quote the market-share figure for Austria itself. What the corpus does show is that Austria is the focus market here, with household electricity at €0.3272/kWh and gas at €0.1221/kWh, a ratio of 2.68 (Austria, country comparison) (country_profile) (price_ratio).

That matters because the refrigerant change is happening against a cost backdrop still broadly supportive of heat pumps. Austria’s 2.68 electricity-to-gas ratio sits well below the roughly 3.7 running-cost threshold often used for a heat pump with SCOP 4 to match a gas boiler on fuel cost alone, and below Poland’s 3.71 benchmark in the country ranking (price_ratio). In other words, Austria does not need extraordinary seasonal performance to keep operating economics competitive.

The broader European catalog gives some context for just how unusual a 90%+ R290 market would be. Across the full Market Index, natural refrigerants account for only 3.27% of listed models, while R32 alone represents 13,935 models and R290 537 models (market_index_snapshot). Austria, then, is not following the continental average; it is diverging sharply from it.

For readers comparing the wider catalog, the R290 listings, the full heat-pump catalog, and the latest market index are the right reference points.

Which brands drove the switch to propane

The brand-level pattern described in the seed is stark: most makers in Austria have already completed, or nearly completed, their move to R290, and the market now reads less like a technology transition than a lineup split. But the corpus does not include Austria-only manufacturer-by-refrigerant counts, so I cannot name the exact top Austrian R290 brands or quantify their Austria-specific gaps.

What I can show is the broader manufacturer hierarchy in the full EPREL-derived catalog. The largest brands by total listed model count are Daikin Europe N.V. with 14,668 models, Mitsubishi Electric Europe B.V. with 5,575, and JOHNSON CONTROLS HITACHI AIR CONDITIONING EUROPE SAS, SUCURSAL EN ESPAÑA with 5,207 (brand_share). Next come Bosch Thermotechnik GmbH at 3,602, Ariston SpA at 2,618, and Vaillant GmbH at 1,195 (brand_share).

Those totals are not Austria-specific, but they do show which groups have the scale to shape any national refrigerant transition. If Austria is now a near-total R290 market, then the brands with the broadest residential lineups and strongest local channels are likely carrying most of that conversion simply because they have the volume to do so. The missing piece is the Austria-only breakout by refrigerant and brand.

The one maker still stuck with R32

The central claim in this story is that one notable manufacturer still preserves a meaningful R32 position in Austria while rivals have largely shifted to propane. That is a useful market signal, but again, the supplied corpus does not contain the Austria-by-brand refrigerant matrix needed to identify that laggard numerically.

What the corpus can say is that, at European catalog level, R32 remains the dominant declared refrigerant, with 13,935 models, versus 537 for R290 and 1,896 for R410A (market_index_snapshot). R32 itself is an HFC with a GWP of 771, while R290 is propane with GWP 0; in the refrigerant reference, R32 also carries an EU phase-out date of 2027-01-01 for the relevant schedule table (refrigerant_universe). That policy direction helps explain why an Austria market at 90%+ propane would matter: it would signal not just compliance drift but an early commercial end-state.

So the unresolved question is not whether R32 is fading in Europe overall; it plainly is under regulatory pressure. The unresolved question is which Austrian brand is still holding enough R32 inventory to stand out against a market that has otherwise moved on. The corpus does not let me pin that down.

How R290 stacks up on efficiency and capacity

The article brief asks whether Austria’s R290 push is also an efficiency story. Here too the corpus falls short on Austria-only refrigerant performance. It does provide two relevant benchmarks.

First, the full-market average SCOP across all listed models is 4.55 (market_index_snapshot). Second, the top-brand averages span a fairly wide range: Bosch Thermotechnik GmbH posts 4.69, Ariston SpA 4.66, Vaillant GmbH 4.54, Daikin Europe N.V. 4.44, and Mitsubishi Electric Europe B.V. 4.51 (brand_share). That tells us brand mix alone can move average seasonal performance.

But the direct Austria-specific comparison requested — whether Austrian R290 models sit above or below the Austrian market average SCOP, and by how much — is not available in the supplied data. The same is true for Austria-specific capacity comparisons. The only market-wide capacity figure in the corpus is an average rated output of 9.3 kW across all listed heat pumps (market_index_snapshot).

One more limitation is worth noting: the query for the top 20 R290 models sorted by SCOP returned no records in the corpus (top_models). That means I cannot credibly compare Austria’s top propane listings with the broader market on best-case SCOP or capacity using the provided source set.

Is Austria also a value market, or just a refrigerant switch?

On running costs, Austria still looks favorable. Household electricity is €0.3272/kWh and gas €0.1221/kWh, for an electricity-to-gas ratio of 2.68 (country_profile) (price_ratio). Since 2.68 is well below the approximate 3.7 threshold associated with a SCOP 4 heat pump breaking even with gas on fuel costs, Austria remains a workable operating-cost market for electrified heating (price_ratio).

There is also policy support. Austria’s federal “Raus aus Öl” program lists a maximum grant of €23,000, with support capped at 75% of cost for eligible low-income households and a €16,000 base grant for a single-family home replacement under the rules shown in the corpus (Austria subsidies, subsidy calculator) (country_profile). That materially changes installed-cost economics even if list-price premiums remain.

What I cannot prove from the corpus is whether Austrian R290 units carry a list-price premium or discount relative to the broader Austrian market, because no Austria-specific price dataset is included. So the safest reading is this: Austria is clearly a favorable economics market on tariffs and subsidies, but the corpus does not establish whether it is a distinct value market in product pricing.

What Austria's near-total R290 mix means for installers and buyers

If Austria has indeed moved beyond 90% R290 share, the practical signal is that propane is no longer a niche specification there but the default stocking and quoting environment. For installers, that means competence in A3 refrigerant handling becomes less of a specialist differentiator and more of a baseline requirement; for buyers, it means comparing brands on emitters, controls, acoustic fit, service coverage, and seasonal efficiency rather than treating refrigerant choice itself as the main fork.

The more interesting competitive point is the brand asymmetry. A market can be “done” with R290 in aggregate while still containing one visible holdout. That would create a simple reputational split: most manufacturers present Austria as a post-R32 market, while one still asks distributors and homeowners to buy into an older refrigerant path. The corpus supports the regulatory and economic logic for that shift, but not the Austria-only brand attribution behind it.

For further context, readers can compare all manufacturers, scan the country comparison dashboard, and review the refrigerants reference alongside the Austria country profile.

Sources

market_index_snapshot — Househeating Pulse · Market Index v1, computed from EPREL Public API. Snapshot: 2026-06-01.
brand_share — EPREL Public API · brand-share aggregation. Snapshot: 2026-06-01.
refrigerant_universe — IPCC AR6 GWP table; EU Reg. 2024/573 phase-out schedule; EPREL declared codes. Snapshot: 2026-06-01.
top_models — EPREL Public API via Househeating Pulse catalog. Snapshot: 2026-06-01.
country_profile — Eurostat tariffs (band DC/D2 latest); NASA POWER 30y normal; EEA grid CO₂; subsidies captured manually from official programme pages. Snapshot: 2026-06-01.
price_ratio — Eurostat household band DC (electricity) / D2 (gas), latest semester. Snapshot: 2026-06-01.