Sensata's R290 P+T Sensor Is a Bet on Propane as the Next EV Refrigerant

Refrigerant choices don't usually make headlines. But the sensor Sensata Technologies launched on September 2 is a signal that the EV thermal management industry is moving - slowly, carefully, and with a lot of engineering homework still to do - toward propane.

Sensata Technologies launched its R290 Pressure + Temperature (P+T) Sensor on September 2, 2026, designed for automotive manufacturers adopting R290 (propane) refrigerant in electrified vehicle thermal management systems.^[1] The device combines pressure and temperature measurement in a single unit, with a leakage-optimized construction and a choice of analog, LIN, or SENT output^[1] - a compact spec sheet that understates the problem it's trying to solve.

Why R290, and Why Now

The refrigerant question in EVs has been building for a few years. The dominant fluid in current mobile air-conditioning systems is R1234yf, an HFO that has low global warming potential on paper. The problem is what happens when it breaks down in the atmosphere: when R1234yf degrades, it forms trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), a persistent PFAS linked to environmental and human health risks. That puts it squarely in the crosshairs of a regulatory wave that is moving faster than most OEM product cycles.

In 2024 and 2025, regulations surrounding PFAS tightened significantly across the EU, UK, and the US, shifting from initial discussions to actual restrictions affecting automotive materials including thermal systems and refrigerants. In the EU, the broad PFAS restriction proposal is currently undergoing scientific assessment at the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), with a complete scientific evaluation expected by the end of 2026.

Propane sidesteps the PFAS problem entirely. R290 carries no fluorine in its molecule, which keeps it clear of the PFAS question altogether.^[1] It also has a GWP of 3 - compared to R410A at 2,088 and R32 at 675 - and zero ozone depletion potential.

Ford's thermal engineering team put it plainly at the ATMO MAC Summit 2024 in Berlin. "R290 is the best global option for BEVs if safety is addressed," said Angelo Patti, Ford's Product Development Engineer for Vehicle Thermal Systems. "Refrigerants used today are not ideal from a thermal standpoint," he added. Testing showed that an R1234yf-based full-secondary loop heat pump with a vapor injector is 20% more efficient than a direct expansion system using the same refrigerant - but replacing R1234yf with R290 in that system improves efficiency by a further 5% in heating mode and 29% in cooling mode.

Those are not marginal gains. In a BEV where cabin heating and battery conditioning both draw from the traction pack, heat pump efficiency is range. A more efficient refrigerant loop in January is a longer drive in January.

The Engineering Problem Propane Creates

The efficiency case for R290 is well-established. The safety case is what makes it hard.

R290 is classified as an A3 refrigerant - highly flammable - and its leakage requirements are strict enough to change how the surrounding thermal system has to be designed.^[1] Deploying it safely in passenger vehicles requires minimizing the system's charge volume and strictly preventing gas from entering the cabin. That constraint shapes everything: hose routing, fitting selection, charge quantity, and the architecture of the loop itself. The secondary-loop designs Ford and DENSO are developing exist partly because they keep the propane charge isolated from the cabin air circuit.

The shift to R290 is driven by its efficiency, system cost benefits, and low environmental impact - but its flammability and strict leakage requirements create new design considerations for OEMs developing next-generation EV thermal management systems. Accurate pressure and temperature sensing is critical to monitoring refrigerant conditions, supporting HVAC and heat pump control, and helping OEMs meet evolving leakage, safety, and regulatory requirements.

This is where Sensata's sensor sits in the stack. The control system needs to know both pressure and temperature at the same point in the circuit to calculate superheat and subcooling - the two values that tell you whether the refrigerant is behaving as the model expects.^[1] If the refrigerant is leaking, those values drift. If the heat pump is losing efficiency, those values drift. A single integrated node that delivers both readings from the same location, with accuracy better than 1% of full scale^[1], gives the control system something to act on.

By combining both pressure and temperature sensing into a single hardware node, engineers eliminate redundant connection points in the refrigerant loop, inherently reducing the mechanical risk of micro-leaks. In a system where the regulatory and safety bar for leakage is already higher than anything the industry has had to manage with R1234yf, that matters.

Where the Industry Actually Is

The supply chain around R290 in EVs is assembling, but it is not assembled yet.

Shanghai Highly announced that mass production of its R290-based integrated thermal management module for electric vehicles - built around a scroll compressor - will begin in 2026. ZF's TherMaS propane thermal management system is in development, with ZF stating publicly in 2025 that TherMaS can improve range by up to 10% through optimized heat utilization and higher winter efficiency, and even up to 30% under extreme conditions. Valeo has said it is developing a propane thermal management system that will be ready by 2028.

The regulatory pathway in the US is still open. In November 2024, Ford submitted an application to the EPA to list R290 as acceptable for use in automotive thermal management systems under the Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) Program. ZF believes an EPA decision could come as soon as 2026; in late 2024, ZF and other industry partners - including Ford - submitted a joint SNAP application to approve propane for use in mobile air-conditioning systems.

As of IAA 2025, CO2 remains the only natural refrigerant formally approved for use in EV thermal management systems. Propane is generating serious engineering investment and OEM interest, but it is still pre-regulatory in the US market. That gap between engineering readiness and regulatory approval is exactly the window in which sensor suppliers, compressor manufacturers, and system integrators are doing their qualification work.

Photo: Vanya Smythe / Unsplash

What Sensata's Launch Actually Signals

Sensata is not a startup placing a speculative bet. It is a Tier 1 supplier with regional manufacturing and automotive qualification infrastructure^[1], launching a product that will only sell if OEMs actually put R290 into production vehicles. The fact that the R290 P+T Sensor exists as a released, spec'd, orderable part - rather than a concept or a roadmap item - says something about where the OEM conversations are.

Sensata announced the launch on September 2, 2026, describing it as designed to support automotive manufacturers adopting R290 refrigerant in electrified vehicle thermal management systems, as OEMs evaluate low-GWP and PFAS-free refrigerant strategies.

The sensor targets BEVs, PHEVs, and other electrified platforms^[1] - which is to say, the full range of vehicles where thermal management architecture is being redesigned from scratch anyway. That is the right moment to introduce a new refrigerant. Retrofitting propane into a system designed around R1234yf is a much harder problem than specifying it into a clean-sheet thermal loop.

The refrigerant transition in EVs will not happen in one model year. But the component ecosystem that makes it possible - compressors, sensors, fittings, control software - has to be ready before the OEM can commit. Sensata's launch is one more piece of that ecosystem moving from development to production readiness. The engineering is getting done. The regulatory approvals are in progress. The question now is which OEM is first to put propane in a production BEV and what the real-world range data looks like when they do.