V-Power now with 5% Ethanol?

[MPx]

From previous threads on here I thought we'd established that there was no requirement for Ethanol to be put in premium fuels and that V-Power didn't contain any.  Noticed new E5 signage on my local V-Power pumps today.  Looked on the Shell site but no new info...just a 2 years old generic post about Ethanol and a sentence saying that it may contain up to 5%.  Anyone got any better info?  Is V-Power now polluted with E?

[Simon Bateman]

I never really gave this much thought until a trip down to Italy in the Evora last year and having difficulty in obtaining 98 fuel.

We managed to just about keep on top of it and probably had the equivalent of between 96 and 98 slushing around in the tank.  A 458 Italia and a Gallardo owner settled on 95 a couple of times rather than wait for the only 98 pump and later began to have rough running issues.

During the trip I sort of became aware of the whole 5 or 10% ethanol issue and was under the impression that every current car on sale today can take up to 10% ethanol (some may have a different view on this).

I found this on Google, so could it be that V max has had a 5% content for some time, but is only now being displayed at the pump?

All petrol sold in the EU typically contains up to 5%ethanol (E5 – the “E” stands for ethanol and the “5” stands for the maximum percentage of ethanol content) and this already for a number of years. It is widely available as the default petrol choice.

I use 99 from Tesco and have done so with my last 4 cars that ironically were all 6 cylinders engines, where the manufacturers recommended 98 and all ran very well on it. Below is from the Tesco website.

Under UK legislation, large fuel producers have a mandatory obligation to use a certain percentage of fuel from renewable sources. The renewable fuel used in petrol is ethanol, typically produced from sugar or starch crops such as sugar cane and maize. Dependent on location and supplier, UK petrol contains between 0 and 5 percent ethanol (produced in compliance to BS EN 288:2012).

 

[Royal]

I only use Esso Synergy Supreme + Unleaded 97. It's Ethanol free (unless anyone knows to the contrary) with the exception of the following areas:

Devon, Cornwall, Teeside area and Scotland.

[Simon Bateman]

I think there probably is an amount of Ethanol in all petrol sold in the UK.  I can't believe our petrol is massively different to mainland Europe and most if not all the UK suppliers are also European/rest of the world suppliers.

Clearly there is negativity associated with Ethanol and I suspect Petrol suppliers don't like to show the actual amount of Ethanol in their products for that reason, or maybe they are just not exactly sure what the % is batch by batch.

The statement from my earlier post certainly seems to suggest that they are obligated to put Ethanol in their products, although I accept that 'up to 5%' is a bit open ended.

I've seen lots of posts over the years from people saying they will only use V Max or BP Ultimate or some other pixie dust, but quite honestly, aside from using at least 98 as recommended, I'm fairly relaxed on which supplier I use and after filling up in some pretty crappy petrol stations on our last group tour down to Italy, I'm certainly not going to lose sleep over a tank of Tesco's finest 99

[jonwat]

BBC reports E10 to become standard fuel

[KAS-118]

3 hours ago, jonwat said:

BBC reports E10 to become standard fuel

So that's less power - and presumably less fuel efficient? 

If so, you'll use more fuel?

I wonder if anyone has done the maths to find out whether the increase in fuel consumption off-sets any benefit from lower emissions per gallon?

[au-yt]

Personally I hate the stuff pulling no punches there. Ethanol fuel is basically Alcohol fuel and corrosion issues for older cars. you use more, and cars need returning to work with the stuff and the higher the amount the higher impact.

[RichardC]

Lotus advice on E10 petrol -

https://www.lotuscars.com/en-GB/fuel-compatibility/

 

 

 

[KAS-118]

Not exactly encouraging......

[DarrylV8]

Why, the extract tells you which Lotus cars can & can’t run on E10, and the reason why Lotus don’t endorse E10 in Rover power train cars.

[KAS-118]

Because:

1) It confirms there will be less performance and less economy; and

2) It indicates that the common ethanol is 94RON - but that you may have to run on 95RON if you experience problems. 

[dave excell]

Used E5 in the V8 over in Europe over 2500 miles. Didn't notice any difference in performance and averaged 32 mpg over the whole trip. Also used it in the Excel and didn't notice any difference. Both are still running.

 

[DarrylV8]

On 05/03/2020 at 15:48, KAS-118 said:

Because:

1) It confirms there will be less performance and less economy; and

2) It indicates that the common ethanol is 94RON - but that you may have to run on 95RON if you experience problems. 

That affects your Alfa?

not sure us mere Lotus drivers, will find much hardship using higher RON rating if required and/or necessary 

the link also states Elise, Exige & Evora WILL NOT run on diesel fuel!

 

 

 

[KAS-118]

1 hour ago, DarrylV8 said:

That affects your Alfa?

not sure us mere Lotus drivers, will find much hardship using higher RON rating if required and/or necessary 

the link also states Elise, Exige & Evora WILL NOT run on diesel fuel!

 

 

 

Oh. sorry I thought the obvious point was that no-matter what fuel you use it will now be less powerful and offer less MPG - what seems a backwards step. 

So yes, it will affect my Alfa - even though I usually fill it with BP Ultimate if I can. Its likely to affect it even more when I have to fill it up away from home, and the pump for the higher grade fuels are either out of action or don't exist - what has happened before.

Their comment about Diesel is strange - I mean it seems to suggest that if you have an Esprit you'll be fine using diesel 🤪 - I can see some legal cases in the USA following that one ....