AWD

I read an article over the weekend (Autocar I think) that in Germany Shell (or another of the big Oil/Petrol companies) had recently started selling a 98+ RON fuel and that it had been selling well. The article writer hoped that this would filter through to the UK.

Apparently the European directive to reduce from 98 to 97RON was not as clear cut as the UK oil companies maintain. Also it costs them less to make 97RON than it does 4 star but they still all charge more for it, claiming that economies of scale etc. mean that they don't get as much from their investment etc.

barge

Another example of Rip off Brittan.

I dont see the Looneys in charge letting have 98 Ron fuel cos its bad for the environment crap they keep saying, what is bad is the crap that most of the London busses are chucking out !!

TelBoy

I used Texaco Super Unleaded Plus the other day, which i never have before, and the chap who took my 89.9 pence per litre read off some chart behind him that this stuff is 98 RON. Was he making it up??

Paul Wilson

Telboy,
Yep, he was making it up

AllanB

I thought part of the reason super was more expensive was due to the higher levels of highly toxic benzine in the SUL over NUL.

Could be wrong.

Some pumps still have 98RON on them and haven't been relabelled as 97RON


AllanB

chrisp

A guy a work told me that his local station said that all there garages would probably phase out SUL by sept 2001. It seems that not enough SUL is being sold. Also there is a rumour that 95 ron would have more additives added to meet new emmision regs and this would lower it to 94 ron. Perhaps scaremungering (sp? still doesnt look right ), perhaps not.

cheers

chrisp

[This message has been edited by chrisp (edited 26 September 2000).]

AWD

When it comes to 97RON fuel it is not just the government who makes it cost so much. I read that it costs the petrol companies far less to make 97RON than it did to make 98RON (in fact I'm not sure if it actually costs more at all). So there is really no justification for charging a lot more for 97RON (over 95RON) except their arguments about not enough people buying it and hence economies of scale.

The Shell Optimax stuff must have been what I read about.

A lot of garages still have 98RON on the pumps and the guys behind the counter have no idea what they are serving so I wouldn't count on what they say to be accurate.

I'd love it if Shell Optimax came to the UK - I suppose that may depend on how well it sells in Germany.

99RON

Come to papa.....

psyg

I live in Holland, nearby the german border.

For a copple of months Shell-Germany (just some of the bigger stations) has SUL 99RON; they call it Shell "Optimax".
You pay plm DM 2.20 for a liter (one gallon = 4,545 liter; 1 pound about 3.20 DM; so about pnd 3.12 a gallon); it's about DM 0.05/0.06 more expensive than 98RON.

Till now I didn't see this 'Optimax' in Holland though;
I have the, of course very subjective, impression that my chip-tuned scoob (needs 98RON) goes a bit better/smoother on that 99RON.

On Nurburgring I heard all the (local) race-boys go for this 'Optimax'.

grt Geert

AndyMc

As AllanB says the higher level of duty was impopsed on super unleaded due to the fact that it contained upto 2.5% benzine compared with 1.5% for normal unleaded.

But as of the beginning of 2000 NO petrol is allowed to contain more than 1% benzine so the reason for the extra tax is no longer valid.So naturally the goverment has reduced the tax NOT!! .

Andy

Neil F

I have been reading an article in a friends BMW Car magazine; some very intersting points came out.
It appears that the government reduced the duty on SUL from 52.33 to 49.21 p/litre as there is no longer a difference in the benzine levels between it and NUL and it was therefore unfair.
At the same time petrol companies were granted a request to ALLOW SUL to drop to 97RON (not ordered to).
As 97RON is used as the basis of LRP (+ an additive) the petrol companies get obvious bulk advantages here. Storage shows a major gain as SUL doesn't become LRP until it goes into the station delivery tanker, when the additive is injected.
Now, as European vehicle approval requires cars to be able to run on 95RON, the petrol companies could claim that no "ill effects" would be experienced when dropping to 97RON, but this is from a damage point of view, not performance and only for cars built from a certain year onwards.
Engine tuner Dave Walker claims that older race cars are suffering the effects of 97 and that pinking and det is a problem if an OB isn't used to compensate.
We are therefore getting overpriced $hitty fuel!
The petrol companies claim that it is expensive to cater for SUL but it is proved by sales in Europe that a lower price would encourage sales (France has 98SUL at =1p/litre dearer than NUL and it represents 40% of hypermarket sales). Incidentally, we are the only European country to reduce to 97RON.......
There is also a worry that SUL will be phased out but the magazine article quotes a major petrol company executive as saying that pressure from car manufacturers means that it will remain. The car manufacturers pressure is because EMSs can be mapped to optimise high octane fuels to give better fuel economy and performance. Apparently in Germany this has already happened and Shell has launched a 99RON ultra-low sulphur SUL. They are hoping that when LRP goes we may see this in the UK.

I have sent e-mails to Shell UK, BP and Texaco asking them to comment on the performance drop/high price issues and referring them to the magazine article to back up my arguments.
I will let you know if I get a response.

Neil (dreaming of 99RON......)

kurtw

The cost thing is a load of crapola!

In France, SUL costs 1p a litre more!

Steven Coomber

This information will cheer you up regarding octane levels of fuel. My job requires me travel around the world as I work in the Oil & Gas industry.

I was in Singapore last year and noticed that their pumps sell 95, 98 and 100 ron fuel. Price diference between all 3? About 3 cents (or about 1p).

Even in a high taxed country like Singapore, their fuel was less than half the cost of UK prices. Surprisingly, a lot of cars were high performance and 100 ron fuel is very popular to increase performance and fuel economy.

Conclusion: We in UK get a crap deal when it comes to cars and fuel

AWD

Steven - the reason that so many cars are expensive and/or high performance in Singapore is due to the extremely high permit costs (annual) for owning a car.

I remember reading that to buy and run (excluding petrol - just permit and purchase costs) a Nissan Micra in Singapore for a year costs around £25-30,000 - most of that being the cost of the permit as the car itself is cheaper than here.

So most people who are willing to pay that sort of cash for the privilege to drive can also afford to buy expensive cars.

We get screwed on petrol but Singapore gets screwed on car tax.

AWD

Neil F - looks like you read the same article as I did. I remember reading both BMW Car and Autocar and assumed that I'd read the article in Autocar.

Anyone fancy getting a tanker of Shell Optimax 99RON driven over from Germany? I'm sure that there'll be plenty of buyers for it.