Propel

Open-source energy route planner for fuel and electric vehicles. Self-hostable.

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No app in the world combines route planning with real-time energy prices, detour time calculation, and smart refueling recommendations. Propel does.

Features

• Real-time fuel prices from government open data APIs (Spain, France, Germany, Italy, UK, Austria, Portugal)
• Interactive map with 65,000+ stations across Europe
• Route planning with geocoding autocomplete and corridor station filtering
• "Cheapest within N minutes detour" — calculates if a detour is worth it (planned)
• Smart refuel/recharge advisor based on your remaining range (planned)
• EV charging integration (planned)
• Multi-language, multi-currency, multi-unit support
• Fully self-hostable with Docker Compose
• 100% open source (GPL-3.0)

Self-Hosting

Requirements

Resource	First-time build	Steady state
RAM	16 GB (Valhalla tile build)	4-5 GB
Disk	~15 GB	~10 GB
CPU	Multi-core recommended	Any

Important: On first start, Valhalla builds routing tiles from OpenStreetMap data (~20 min) and Photon imports geocoding data (~30 min). These are one-time operations — data persists across restarts. Run them sequentially (Valhalla first, then Photon) to avoid memory pressure.

Quick Start

1. Clone and configure:

git clone https://github.com/GeiserX/propel.git
cd propel
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env — set DATABASE_URL and optionally PROPEL_DEFAULT_COUNTRY

2. Start the stack:

docker compose up -d

3. Wait for the first-time setup to complete:

# Watch Valhalla build routing tiles (~20 min)
docker logs -f propel-valhalla

# Watch Photon download geocoding data (~30 min)
docker logs -f propel-photon

4. Seed station data:

npm install
npx prisma generate
npm run scraper:run -- --country=ES --once

5. Open http://localhost:3000

What Happens on First Start

Service	First start	Subsequent starts
Valhalla	Downloads Spain OSM PBF from Geofabrik (~1.4 GB), builds routing tiles with 20 threads. Enhance stage peaks at ~12 GB RAM.	Loads pre-built tiles instantly (~500 MB RAM)
Photon	Downloads Photon 1.0.1 JAR (~92 MB) + Spain geocoding dump (~490 MB). Imports ~5.6M documents (~12 min).	Starts OpenSearch with existing index (~1 GB RAM)
PostGIS	Creates database schema	Ready immediately
App	Ready immediately	Ready immediately

Docker Compose Services

Service	Image	Steady-state RAM	Internal Port
app	drumsergio/propel	512 MB	3000 (exposed as 3200)
db	postgis/postgis:17-3.4	2 GB	5432
valhalla	ghcr.io/gis-ops/docker-valhalla/valhalla:3.5.1	512 MB	8002
photon	eclipse-temurin:21-jre + Photon 1.0.1 JAR	1 GB	2322

Disk Usage (Spain)

Directory	Size	Contents
valhalla/	~3.5 GB	Spain PBF + routing tiles + tar
photon/	~4 GB	Photon JAR + OpenSearch index
pgdata/	~1 GB	PostGIS database
Total	~8.5 GB

Configuration

Variable	Description	Default
DATABASE_URL	PostGIS connection string	Required
PROPEL_DEFAULT_COUNTRY	ISO code for initial map view	ES
PROPEL_ENABLED_COUNTRIES	Comma-separated ISO codes	All
VALHALLA_URL	Valhalla routing endpoint	http://propel-valhalla:8002
PHOTON_URL	Photon geocoding endpoint	http://propel-photon:2322

Using a Different Country

Valhalla and Photon can be configured for any country:

1. Valhalla: Change tile_urls to the country PBF from Geofabrik
2. Photon: Change -country-codes es to your country code in the docker-compose entrypoint
3. App: Set PROPEL_DEFAULT_COUNTRY and PROPEL_ENABLED_COUNTRIES

Data Sources

Country	Source	Stations	Update
Spain	MITECO	~12,000	Daily
France	prix-carburants.gouv.fr	~9,800	10 min
Germany	Tankerkoenig (MTS-K)	~14,000	4 min
Italy	MIMIT	~22,000	Daily
UK	CMA Open Data	~8,000	Varies
Austria	E-Control	All	Real-time
Portugal	DGEG	~3,500	Daily

Tech Stack

Next.js 15, React 19, MapLibre GL JS, Tailwind CSS, PostGIS 17, Valhalla 3.5.1, Photon 1.0.1, OpenFreeMap.

Roadmap

See ROADMAP.md for the full plan — from fuel prices to EV charging to global expansion.

License

GPL-3.0 — see LICENSE