I've just bought E5 in the UK and paid 3p a litre more than E10, so that looks cheaper than France to me,

Edited by daveyjp on 08/10/2021 at 16:59

If you want E5 petrol in the UK, you have to buy super 98 at an increased cost of 10 pence per liter. Yet in France regular E5 is still available at most petrol stations at an increased cost of 4 pence per liter compared to E10.

Why are we paying more for our petrol?

It's the British way :-)

I've not driven a petrol car in France since c1992 so can only comment on what I remember seeing.

France was somewhat ahead of us with E10 and retained c95 octane E5 as another option at the pumps. Whether that was a commercial decision or one which was driven by legislation I do not know. France, particularly in its more rural areas, has a greater proportion of older cars than the UK which, combined with E10 arriving earlier, may have driven continuing provision of standard grade E5.

UK governments, I suspect, have left it to the fuel companies and forecourt operators to sort out on a purely commercial basis.

Did I read somewhere that there are swathes of the UK fed by particular refineries where standard petrol is still E5 as the refinery is not equipped to deal with ethanol?

If you want E5 petrol in the UK, you have to buy super 98 at an increased cost of 10 pence per liter. Yet in France regular E5 is still available at most petrol stations at an increased cost of 4 pence per liter compared to E10.

Why are we paying more for our petrol?

Try Sainsbury's (I can't comment about other supermarket superunlead because I've never bought any from them, only Sainsbury's and Shell), as they normally are about 4-7p (likely a percentage dependent on the wholesale price) dearer for theirs.

My local had a difference of 6p at the moment (just looked it up on PetrolPrices.com), though availability at present obviously could be an issue as a result (it's cheaper than branded filling stations' standard unleaded).

Note that the branded filling station brands like Shell, Texaco, Esso and BP apparently put more cleaning additives in their standard and especially superfuels than the 'unbranded' supermakets ones - at least that's what their marketing blurb says, which was (admitedly some years ago) confirmed by HJ (sadly now no longer owner or a contributor to this site, or to the Daily Telegraph) himself.

The difference in normal times is because that's what the market can bear - which really translates to what people are willing to put up with.