Hello
Volvo-Berti skrev:
German regulations are stronger as in our neighborhood countries
Same in France.
Any "important" car modification requires
1/ the agreement of the car manufacturer
2/ a specific procedure to have the car documents updated
An Ethanol piggybox is considered as an "important" car modification because changing the main energy of the car
On this basis, since September 2008, piggybox presence if seen during MoT testing automatically leads to "MoT failed" and the car owner has 2 months to have the car back to be MoT tested again
The rationale behind is that with a piggybox the main energy of the car is "Ethanol" while the car registration document states "petrol" ==> car running with a fuel different from the one written on the car documents (native Flexfuel cars have a specific "ethanol" energy)
In theory, if the car manufacturer indicates that the car can be modified for Ethanol ... it should be possible to keep the piggybox but currently they all refuse to provide with such a document arguing about the entire fuel system not designed for alcohol
It has to be noticed that the global procedure is sibling to the one used for aftermarket LPG upgrade ... the manufacturer establishes a document indicating that the car can be modified to LPG and then with an agreed equipement installed by an approved garage, and some papers ... the energy source of the car is modified from Gasoline to LPG
As far as Ethanol mixture is concerned, we have
- summer blend between E75 and E85 (5 months period)
- mid season blend between E70 and E80 (twice 1.5 months)
- winter blend between E65 and E75
Some people say that TOTAL stations only deliver E70/E75 all year long (with a liter price of 0,99€ versus an average of 0,85€ for Supermarket stations)
Number of E85 stations is currently 277 slowly increasing by some 5 to 10 per month
Newspapers calculated that the global E85 volume sold during the 2008 summer period ... is ten times the one normally implied by the number of native flexfuel cars
Native Flexfuel cars are far less popular in 2008 than in 2007 ... only a few thousands sold for many reasons
1/ most of Diesel cars are at the same price level ... as an example Ford Focus or Volvo 30/40/50 are both available either with TDCi (90 HP) or Flexfuel engines (125HP) at the same price level (TDCi are less powerful but have far more torque)
2/ Diesel cars often get a CO2 tax discount of some 200 -700 Euros (because very often below 120-140g CO2/km) while the flexfuel cars have a CO2 tax malus of some 200-700 Euros (because often 160+ g CO2/km calculed on petrol use ... due to European regulations the government says ?)
Bye