After the German government’s decision last week to abandon a programme to blend all petrol with 10% biofuels, because it had emerged that some 3.3m cars on German roads could not cope with the fuel, some details of the cars that would be affected have emerged.
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The German manufacturers’ trade association, the Verband der Automobilindustrie (VDA) had said that around 360,000 cars on German roads were unsuitable for the fuel, based on 189,000 of its own members’ cars, scaled up to reflect the fact that its members account for roughly two-thirds of the market.
But Germany’s environment minister Sigmar Gabriel decided to scrap the policy when the importers’ association, the Verband der Internationalen Kraftfahrzeugherstelle (VDIK), reported that the figure was more like 3m cars.
VDA data showed that, of a total parc of 30.9m petrol-powered vehicles, Mercedes has the most non-compliant models (78,000 ) and BMW the least (6,000).
The fact that the importers association put the number of cars that cannot cope with the fuel at 3.3m must mean that they are using different standards and different components, Automobilwoche said.
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By GlobalDataThe trade newspaper surveyed importers and found that Nissan reported a figure of 400,000 cars that cannot run on the fuel, Citroen, 200,000, Skoda and Seat combined, 400,000. Renault reported just 20,000 of its cars would not run on the fuel.
Germany already blends petrol with 5% biofuel. Around 170,000 cars have to use (higher octane) Super Plus fuel, which is not blended. This is considered acceptable, but it would not be if that figure were as high as 3m.
“Our environmental policy does not want to be responsible for making millions of drivers of old cars, who often do not earn so much money, drive to expensive Super Plus petrol pumps,” Gabriel told a television channel. The Super Plus fuel costs around EUR0.15 more than regular petrol with 5% ethanol.
