UK disappoints biofuel producers as it favours EV over E10

The UK government this week earmarked £340 million to build a national charging network as it seeks to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, and said it would allow self-driving vehicles on the road by 2021, but it failed to pass measures that would have boosted ethanol use in the country’s 36 million road vehicles.

In the government’s annual budget, the UK said it would invest £200 million into a new £400 million Charging Investment Infrastructure Fund and commit to electrify 25% of central government’s carfleet by 2022.

In addition it will invest another £100 million to extend the government’s plug-in car grant to 2020, which contributes up to £4,500 towards a new electric vehicle and allow “connected and autonomous vehicles” on the road in just four years.

“The government wants to see fully self-driving cars, without a human operator, on UK roads by 2021. The government will therefore make world-leading changes to the regulatory framework, such as setting out how driverless cars can be tested without a human safety operator,” according to the UK government’s report.

And apart from a minor increase in diesel tax, the government had little else to say about intervention in the fuel markets – a move that angered some biofuels producers that had requested the government compel fuel suppliers to use 10% renewable petrol in the mix.

“We agree with the Chancellor that we owe it to our children to clean up the air they breathe. But we also owe that to the existing population, and the time for meaningful action is now, not in the distant future,” said Mark Chesworth, managing director of Vivergo Fuels.

Biofuels producers say introducing E10 would lower pollutants and be the equivalent in carbon emissions savings of taking 700,000 cars off the road.

However, the government claims that introducing E10 as a standard would damage vehicles.