Since Friday 12 October, fuel labelling at service stations has been standardised throughout the European Union.
Iceland, Liechtenstein, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey are also affected.
This harmonisation is based on Article 9(4) of Directive 2014/94/EU on infrastructure for alternative fuels, which states that the Commission may instruct the European Standards Organisations (ESOs) "to adopt implementing acts determining the graphic expression, including a colour-coding scheme, concerning the compatibility of these fuels" (see EUROPE 11165). The European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) therefore adopted an act on the subject on 12 October 2016, which was to enter into force two years later.
The purpose of this standardised labelling is to help customers not confuse the fuels they should use for their vehicles and to better understand their environmental impact.
Labels must also be placed on the tank caps of new vehicles. However, it is not a question of changing the name of the fuels or the various recommendations relating to them.
Three types of labels are used to identify fuels. Gasoline-type fuels are now marked with the letter 'E' (E5, E10, etc.) within a circle. Diesel-type fuels are marked with the letter 'B' (B7, B10, etc.) or the acronym 'XTL' within a square. Finally, a diamond is used to identify gaseous-type fuels, inside which a specific reference ('CNG','LNG', etc.) is inserted. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)