Bioethanol E85

[mk7gti]

I have just been watching an interesting video on youtube about Bioethanol E85 and the performance gains / reduced costs over standard petrol. Do any mainstream petrol retailers actually sell E85 in the UK? It would be nice to try a tank since the GTI is capable of running on this fuel...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltWcgiCm4NY

[Restlessnative]

I think BP used to sell it quite a few years back.But haven't seen it for a long time in any stations.
Think it died a death when the subsidy stopped.
It's big in Brazil of all places.

[monkeyhanger]

It's quite big in the Scandinavian countries due to its environmental credentials (as long as it doesn't cause a shortage of food intended crops) and the tax breaks it affords the Swedes and Danes compared to the ridiculous price they pay for regular fuels including tax.

Never seen any E85 pumps in the UK. You get a few more horses but it's about 20% thirstier litre for litre so it needs to be at least 20% cheaper for you to be in the same position £-wise to be running it over petrol.

It will only be cheaper if/when available if the Chancellor doesn't tax the hell out of it, petrol is cheap without the tax hit right now, the Yanks sell their high octane petrols for around 50p a litre ($2.80 per US Gallon).

[Mk7-GTD]

Didn't Lotus have an Exige going about running it about 8 years ago.

[itavaltalainen]

The mk7 engine management will through butt loads of errors if you run a TSI on E85. At most you can get away with is 25% short term. However not feasible in the UK as it costs pretty much the same as normal petrol due to taxation (Nordic countries have reduced tax rates for renewable fuels or even exemptions of fuel duty).