LOOK: Outsmarting US oil blockade, Cuban mechanic powers car with charcoal

Juan Carlos Pino, a Cuban mechanic with an eighth-grade education, may have found a way to outsmart the U.S. oil blockade.

Employing the kind of Cuban ingenuity developed after decades of U.S. sanctions, Pino, 56, modified his 1980 Polish-built Fiat Polski to run on charcoal, a cheaper and more abundant fuel than gasoline since Washington cut off oil shipments to the Caribbean island in January.

Pino built the contraption from his workshop in Aguacate, population 5,000, about 70 km (45 miles) east of Havana, a town that once thrived on a now-shuttered sugar refinery. Today, it is surrounded by cow pastures and stone quarries where men walk to work with long-hand saws flexed over their shoulders.

In town, Pino is a celebrity with his two-cylinder Polski chugging about the pot-holed streets, its distinctive 60-liter (15-gallon) fuel tank soldered to the back.

Pino built his device entirely from scrap and repurposed items. The charcoal burns inside a converted propane tank that is sealed shut with the lid of transformer. A filter is made from a stainless steel milk jug stuffed with old clothes.

In a U.S.-besieged economy, scarcity has long been a constant in Cuba. That has grown worse since the U.S. deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, cutting off Venezuelan oil while threatening tariffs on any other countries that supply Cuba with fuel.

 Power blackouts are now the norm. Gasoline is strictly rationed. On the black market, gasoline sells for $8 per liter, or US$30 per gallon - six times the official price.

Pino once created a machine, built from a motorcycle, to milk three cows at a time. He said he'd been contemplating the charcoal-fired automobile for several years, inspired at first by his late uncle. Pino also credited the open-source technology promoted by Edmundo Ramos, an Argentine innovator behind DriveOnWaste.com.

Fellow Cubans are gobsmacked.

Townspeople gather to take selfies, some incredulous, others asking if he could make one for them.

Production: Alien Fernandez, Anett Rios, Liamar Ramos/Reuters

People gather around Cuban mechanic Juan Carlos Pino, 56, as they look at how his modified 1980 Polish‑built Polski car, adapted to run on charcoal, a cheaper and more abundant alternative to gasoline since the United States cut off oil shipments to the Caribbean Island, in Aguacate, Cuba, March 16, 2026. REUTERS/Norlys Perez

Cuban mechanic Juan Carlos Pino, 56, puts charcoal into the fuel tank to fuel his modified 1980 Polish‑built Polski car, adapted to run on charcoal, a cheaper and more abundant alternative to gasoline since the United States cut off oil shipments to the Caribbean Island, in Aguacate, Cuba, March 16, 2026. REUTERS/Norlys Perez