Does your car run on E85 bioethanol or LPG, and you are afraid of not finding these two fuels at tight prices during your summer holidays? Don’t panic: even if they remain less widespread than gasoline or diesel, various tools can help you find them.
In these times of expensive fuel, having a car that runs on E85 superethanol or LPG can save you a lot of money. Especially on the road to vacation, which will perhaps make you complete your longest and most expensive journey of the year! These two alternatives to gasoline are indeed displayed at unbeatable prices, even if they have not escaped increases. With the help of the government discount of 18 cents per liter, they remain well below the 1 €/L mark on average in France, while unleaded 95 is above 2 €/L. Despite the overconsumption caused by both E85 and liquefied petroleum gas, it is therefore more profitable than ever to use them. But you still have to manage to refuel on a route that you do not necessarily know well, while these two fuels are still far from being available in all service stations.
TO READ. Ethanol or LPG? Strengths and weaknesses of the two low-cost fuels
Nearly 3,000 stations for ethanol
For ethanol, fortunately, the winds are more and more favorable. There are now at least 2,887 establishments that distribute it, according to the bioethanol collective. Other figures even announce that the bar of 3,000 push-ups has already been crossed! As a bonus, two of the most touristic regions in summer, Occitanie and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, are among the best equipped. As for the highways, they have not been forgotten. In total, we therefore find this mixture of alcohol of vegetable origin and unleaded in almost a third of service stations in France.
With a fairly balanced territorial distribution, except in Corsica where you will have to agree to fall back on unleaded. But if you’re the glass-half-empty type, that also means you have a two-in-three chance of breaking your nose. To avoid this, it is better to install the application “My E85 stations” , available on App Store as on Google Play, which lists all the places where you can refuel. Once you have selected your drop-off point, you can then use a navigation app like Google Maps or Waze to get there. One of the two main installers of converter boxes, Flexfuel Energy Development, also offers an interactive map which you can find below.
A more international LPG
Despite the recent success of the range Dacia Eco-G, LPG is not in the same upward spiral. It is almost half as easy to find as its rival, with around 1,650 service stations in France. Fortunately, they are once again distributed fairly evenly: according to France Gaz Liquide, there is at least one every 60 km. Moreover, this time, Corsica is not completely forgotten.
As for those who travel abroad, they can easily find this mixture of butane and propane in many European countries, unlike E85 which is a specialty in France. There are thus more than 30,800 LPG stations on the Old Continent. Available on iPhone and Android, the app myLPG.eu will guide you to them. Be aware, however, that you will sometimes need adapters because there are no less than four different filling systems! Finally, as with E85, more general applications such as Zagaz, Gasoline & Co, or even Waze, can also be used as an alternative. They all include filters to select the type of fuel in your vehicle and display the stations that distribute it in priority.
