As part of the EU’s effort to bring down car emissions for a better environment, greener cars and more renewable energy, biofuels are being blended into both petrol and diesel.
One of these biofuels is bioethanol; at the moment, you’ll find the 5% blend in the standard E5 pumps with unleaded petrol at your local petrol station. In the future, the new E10 petrol with 10% bioethanol will be introduced to the British market as well.
The APPG for British Bioethanol launched a report that suggests that the introduction of the E10 will save the equivalent emissions of taking 700.000 cars off the British roads. At the moment, France, Germany, Finland and Belgium have introduced the E10 petrol, but more more countries will follow.
What will it mean to you as a car owner?
Both newer cars and the designated pumps at petrol stations will be marked with a label to signal E10 compatibility, when the eco-friendly petrol is introduced in the UK.
All cars produced after 2011 are pre-approved to use the E10 petrol fuel. So if your car is younger than January 1st 2011, you’re on the safe side - your petrol cap might even have an E10 label.
Beyond this, there is no other practical consequences for you or your car - if it’s approved, you can pump the green fuel and help the planet at the same time. It should not have any effect on energy efficiency either, as you should be able to go just as far per litre as usual.
Do you own a diesel car? The change from E5 to E10 will not affect you at all. You can fill your car up with B5 og B7 as usual.
How do you know if your car is approved for E10?
An estimation of around 5% of the entire vehicle fleet are not pre-approved for the new eco-friendly fuel. It’s mostly cars from the 1990’s which are not approved.
Check out this page to see if your car can run on E10.
You can also call you local car dealer or garage and ask them.
Should you unintentionally fill E10 into the tank of a car that’s not approved, keep calm. Just remember to fill it up with E5 afterwards. If you fill up the tank completely though, it will need emptying and it is not advised to drive the car, Treat the same as you would in any other case of fuel misidentification!
If you have a car that cannot run on the new standard E10, you’ll still be able to find and use the E5 pumps at your local petrol station, Just make sure to check before you fill up your car.
