Happy Birthday - E10
Almost exactly ten years ago - plusminus 37 hours - the most environmentally friendly fuel since the introduction of Jägermeister, HKT and Maggiwürze hit the shelves of discounters and supermarkets as a substitute fuel.
Unfortunately, the marketing as nibbling fun for the little ones did not catch on, and just a few months later the petrol stations jumped in and took over the paste as a liquid product in tanks underneath the covered parking spaces and offered it from then on as a driving agent for petrol and Wankel-type internal combustion engines.
Since then, the success concept has been unstoppable
Almost every third vehicle with the aforementioned engine can process the fuel without significant immediate damage. It was not until two years later that a visible notice - comparable to the list of ingredients in packaged food or the small print warnings in tobacco products - had to remind people at the petrol pumps to ask the manufacturer whether the vehicle can tolerate this fuel, in order to nip complaints about the shortened life of the engine and transmission in the bud.
But who seriously wants to complain about the fact that the rotten press residues of worthless vegetables, which could otherwise possibly be misused as food, are mixed with an alleged ten percent of the refined remains of primeval forests and dinosaurs that ensure our individual mobility?
Is it really 10%?
According to the specifications of the self-monitoring mineral oil industry, conventional fuel is no different at all from the birthday boy E10. While unleaded, plus, premium, power, supreme, 95, 98 and the like (wasn't it nice when there was just diesel, regular and super?) are supposed to have a five percent organic content, the cheap version, which at least doesn't reek of heating oil, has another 10 percent of highly concentrated feed corn juice added. In the past, during and after Prohibition, this was called 'adulteration', but when the stationary puts a note on the tap about the advertising, those willing to fill up nod in satisfaction, because they are sufficiently informed - similar to the spread and measures to contain infectious diseases.
Consequential damage excluded
Every motorist can fill up with the new type of petrol with a clear conscience. Because according to BGDIEG21 (abbr. f. Bundesverband für Gesundheit und Desinfektionsmittelinjektionsgeinführungsgesetz im Jahre 2021), bioethanol behaves more or less like water, i.e. it merely reduces engine power, which would otherwise have to be brought about by the cumbersome enactment of speed limits or even the erection of road signs. So why a warning is given at all or why not every motor vehicle can run on one and the same fuel anyway (subsequent edit: on this also read the article Solo Star War ) remains open, but will already have no significance. After all, the probability of getting 'six right' in the lottery is less than 1:14 million or 0.0000000715%, and gamblers say rhetorically: 'why shouldn't I win', for smokers as well as non-smokers to get cancer is 1:2 or 50%, and smokers say analogously: 'why should it affect me'.
Hooray - The most popular fuel of all time
Since its introduction, the valuable E10 has justifiably secured a place in the hearts of motorists not only because of the tax relief - only 84 instead of 87 per cent of the price of a litre consists of government levies (don't forget: as of 1.1.21 the CO2 tax will be added, according to today's estimates about 14ct) - secured a place in the hearts of car drivers, also its undoubted reputation as an environmental fuel with a future gives it a market share of almost 30% among the non-biodegradable volatile liquids, although it is significantly more expensive to produce than the written-off regular petrol with 95 octane. After all, the suppliers have to mix the actual fuel with the cow waste in such a way that it can neither be smelled nor seen.