New E10 fuel incompatible with some cars The Department for Transport has launched a consultation on its proposal for the UK’s larger forecourts to begin selling E10 petrol, a cleaner fuel, in order to meet climate change targets. However, research has shown that as many as 635,309 petrol cars currently on the road will be incompatible with it. E10 petrol contains 10% bioethanol, a type of renewable fuel, to reduce carbon when burned – that’s twice the amount of the 5% maximum currently found in the petrol at your local pumps. It’s currently available across most of Europe, as well as the US and Australia, and the vast majority of vehicles in use today are approved to be fuelled with it. However, older models are at risk of incompatibility. Ten most popular cars to be affected by E10 fuel A study by the RAC Foundation has compiled a top 10 list of the most popular models set to be affected. Of the 635,309 models incompatible with E10 petrol, 150,000 will have been manufactured from the year 2000 onwards. The most popular cars are as follows:
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What will happen if your car is incompatible with new, cleaner fuels? Fortunately for affected owners,The Department for Transport is proposing that the larger stations that will be stocking E10 will also have to maintain a complement of the older E5 grade petrol so that owners of older vehicles aren’t left behind. The director of the RAC Foundation, said online : ‘As and when E10 appears on the forecourts, drivers need to know whether their cars can use it without being damaged. ‘This analysis shows that even in a couple of years’ time, there will still be hundreds of thousands of cars on our roads that are incompatible with the new fuel. ‘While some of the cars incompatible with E10 fuel will be historic models, many will be old but serviceable everyday runarounds that people on a tight travel budget rely on to get about. ‘The good news is both that the vast majority of cars on our roads are able to run on E10 and the Transport Secretary, has recognised the need to protect the users of those older vehicles which are not E10 compatible.
