2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 15:44
Drivers in Germany continue to avoid Super E10 fuel. Last year, sales fell again.
The ethanol-containing premium fuel E10 cannot establish itself even five years after its market launch. Last year, sales in Germany fell by 12.2 percent to 2.47 million tons compared to the previous year, as reported by the Federal Association of the German Bioethanol Industry (BDBe).
The share of E10 in the petrol market thus fell from 15.2 percent to 13.6 percent in 2015. Last year's sales were the worst since the launch year with its initial delivery problems.
Super E10 with a bad image
E10 has been in crisis since it was launched in early 2011. The biofuel quota that has been in effect since then was intended to improve the CO2 balance of road traffic with the help of fuel made from renewable raw materials, but it did not really resonate with consumers right from the start.
At first, uncertainties about the engine compatibility of E10 damaged the image of the eco-fuel, later a debate broke out about the competition between tank and plate. E10 therefore never got beyond a market share of a good 15 percent for petrol.
2020 as the crux of the matter
In 2015, sales of ethanol, which in addition to E10 are also contained in normal super as well as in the biofuels E85 and the additive ETBE, fell by a total of 4.5 percent to 1.17 million tons. The industry in Germany hopes that the situation for ethanol in Germany will change by 2020.
Since last year, the biofuel quota has been replaced by a blanket CO2 savings target for fuel consumption, which can initially be achieved with low biofuel quotas, but will become more demanding in 2020 years. By then, at the latest, E10 sales could rise again. (SP-X)
