The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 548
The Auto Express story talks about the UK's plans to raise standard gasoline from E5 to E10, and how the increase from about 5% ethanol-gasoline
blend to about 10% ethanol-gasoline blend would be incompatible with around
800,000 cars currently on the road throughout the UK - according to the government (the UK government).
The Auto Express article lists five different examples of cars that are claimed to
be incompatible with E10. These examples are part of what the story says is
"fresh research" from the RAC Foundation (RAC Foundation had been part of
Royal Automobile Club Motoring Services, which was equivalent to America's
AAA). The five examples are:
Volkswagen Golf
MG MGB
Mazda MX-5
Nissan Micra
Morris Minor
The article doesn't give the model years that these "incompatible" vehicles
would be, so I presume it's just a blanket statement of incompatibility.
Well, the list instantly made me laugh. Three of the vehicles are sold in America
and/or Brazil - the Golf, the MX-5 (also known as Miata), and the Micra. In the
U.S., our standard gasoline is E10. In Brazil, their standard gasolina is E27. So,
if the Golf and the MX-5 can run on E10 in America, and all three can run on
E27 in Brazil, why would they be unable to run on E10 in the UK?
Answer: They're perfectly capable of running on E10 in England, Scotland,
Wales, and Northern Ireland. What the article should say, but doesn't, is that it's
not a situation of the vehicles being "unable" to run on E10, but a situation in
which the manufacturers have chosen to try and limit their warranty-liability by
claiming that no fuel above E5 should be used - this is a far cry from being-able
to-run and not-able-to-run.
The other two vehicles are old vehicles, they're classics, of a sort. Morris Minors
were built between 1948 and 1971, and MG manufactured MGBs from 1962 to
about 1980. Here's the thing, from the 1920s to the 1970s at least two gasoline
companies in Great Britain marketed ethanol-gasoline blends of E10 to E30.
One of the gasoline companies was owned by Standard Oil (Esso), another by
Cities Service. These were and are major oil companies. Consequently, both
the Morris Minor and the MG MGB were manufactured to run on "power alcohol"
