Mainland Europe e5 petrol?

[AnnasMerc83]

Anyone know if the E5 and E10 labelling is universal across the channel or does E5 have another name?

I seem to remember it was known as ‘super-plus’?

I will be driving though France, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland and wanted to be sure.

And how readily available is the E5 in those countries?

If I have to plan my route via petrol stations, that would be a massive pain in the ****!

Especially as I am adamant to avoid motorways too!

 

[Wearsthefoxhat]

Why not take a few bottles of one of the additives available incase…

have a lovely trip.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Scratching my head at this. Can’t imagine why you’d think it an issue. Is this because you know that the EU is phasing out E5 but don’t realise that it’s only being phased out at the 95 octane level?

E5 98 Octane is all over Germany, it’s “the country where people drive their wealth.” Switzerland? Of course their gloriously expensive cars are treated to E5 98. Even in France, where people “eat their wealth,” E5 98 is everywhere, even though France was one of the early converters from E5 95 to E10 95.

Belgium? Who cares, you’ll drive through it quickly, but again, probably no real issue.

How far are you driving? Five or six tankfuls?

 

[NJSS]

Just back from a trip from Bilbao, along the Pyrenees, through France virtually to Nice & back via Cherbourg.

No problem in getting E5 anywhere en route

 

[AnnasMerc83]

Scratching my head at this. Can’t imagine why you’d think it an issue. Is this because you know that the EU is phasing out E5 but don’t realise that it’s only being phased out at the 95 octane level?

E5 98 Octane is all over Germany, it’s “the country where people drive their wealth.” Switzerland? Of course their gloriously expensive cars are treated to E5 98. Even in France, where people “eat their wealth,” E5 98 is everywhere, even though France was one of the early converters from E5 95 to E10 95.

Belgium? Who cares, you’ll drive through it quickly, but again, probably no real issue.

How far are you driving? Five or six tankfuls?

Hmm good point, I did not realise that the phasing out was of 95-e5 only and that 98-e5 will remain easily available! Silly me.

Good to know and puts my mind at ease.

The drive in total will be approx 2k miles, as we will be avoiding motorways completely and just enjoying the rural roads.

Thanks!

 

[AnnasMerc83]

Just back from a trip from Bilbao, along the Pyrenees, through France virtually to Nice & back via Cherbourg.

No problem in getting E5 anywhere en route

Good to have confirmation!

I did the drive to Barcelona via Pyrenees last year but in my previous car, so didn’t pay attention to the petrol.

Did you do the rural roads?

 

[AnnasMerc83]

Why not take a few bottles of one of the additives available incase…

have a lovely trip.

I was thinking this, but didn’t know if I was being a bit silly - which may have been the case indeed!

 

[st13phil]

As others have said, 98 octane E5 is readily available in all the countries you’re visiting. 95 octane E5 is also commonly available - just check the labelling on the pumps.

Of all the countries you’re visiting, Germany is currently the most expensive for petrol. We paid €2.19 per litre for Aral 102 there a couple of weeks ago. If your route takes you through Luxembourg then try to arrive there with an empty tank. They are still the cheapest in Western Europe

 

[AnnasMerc83]

As others have said, 98 octane E5 is readily available in all the countries you’re visiting. 95 octane E5 is also commonly available - just check the labelling on the pumps.

Of all the countries you’re visiting, Germany is currently the most expensive for petrol. We paid €2.19 per litre for Aral 102 there a couple of weeks ago. If your route takes you through Luxembourg then try to arrive there with an empty tank. They are still the cheapest in Western Europe

Nice! I’ll top up the wee Jerry can in Luxembourg too!

 

[NJSS]

Did you do the rural ro

In a word "yes":-

 

[NJSS]

The photograph in the previous post showed a Catalonian street which simply "dried up" !

Here's something a little better:-





and here's the unsurfaced road from Catalonia to France:-

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Enjoy your trip !

For what it's worth, Supermarkets are always cheaper than the branded petrol stations, and you'll find them on the edge of most towns. Motorway service stations are as big a rip off as in the UK. No surprise there, really.

 

[JHS]

Enjoy your trip !

For what it's worth, Supermarkets are always cheaper than the branded petrol stations, and you'll find them on the edge of most towns. Motorway service stations are as big a rip off as in the UK. No surprise there, really.

We found that TOTAL stations in urban areas were much the cheapest, even than supermarkets.

 

[NJSS]

Did we enjoy the trip - YES sans doute / sin duda.

As we were going to traverse some fairly wild country, with badly surfaced very narrow roads we decided against taking the SL.

I thought of taking my Discovery, but it would never have got through some of the narrow streets, so we took SWMBO's Audi A1 which lapped it all up and did twice as many miles per gallon as either SL or the Discovery.

I love the Pyrenees and in particular the Basque Country and Catalonia and have visited probably 15 times in the last 25 years, including rallying on a number of occasions in my MGB GTV8 or MGA.

NJSS

 

[AnnasMerc83]

Did we enjoy the trip - YES sans doute / sin duda.

As we were going to traverse some fairly wild country, with badly surfaced very narrow roads we decided against taking the SL.

I thought of taking my Discovery, but it would never have got through some of the narrow streets, so we took SWMBO's Audi A1 which lapped it all up and did twice as many miles per gallon as either SL or the Discovery.

I love the Pyrenees and in particular the Basque Country and Catalonia and have visited probably 15 times in the last 25 years, including rallying on a number of occasions in my MGB GTV8 or MGA.

NJSS

We did a lot of the gorges around Montpellier, and in the Pyrenees, and there was a fair bit of skilful truck and caravan driving!

I have no idea how they got up and back down the windy bits, I was terrified in my little hatchback.

 

[AnnasMerc83]

As an afterthought, I do worry whether the old girl will even make it up some of the Alpine roads

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

We found that TOTAL stations in urban areas were much the cheapest, even than supermarkets.

He’s right.

Patrick Pouyanne did a 12 cent per litre price drop last year as a PR thing when they were having their battles with the truck drivers’ strikes. I wasn’t sure whether it’s still around but it’s worth looking out for.

I mentioned supermarkets because they’re more clearly signposted: “Leclerc 5kms straight on.”

 

[Swotty]

Here's a useful price comparison site. There are others. Bergerac is a popular tourist spot and 25 mins away from me.

CARBURANTS - Comparatif des prix du carburant à Bergerac (Dordogne) - Carburants

Toutes les stations service et les prix des carburants de chacune d'entre elles dans la ville Bergerac (Dordogne) et aux alentours

www.carburants.org

Type into google "prix essence" or "prix carburants" followed by the town you're looking at.

Have a great trip.