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Misfuelling, or the use of the wrong fuel as a combustible for an engine or any other device, is a word that is being increasingly used in the UK. It is most commonly used to refer to the specific case of putting petrol into a diesel engine’s fuel tank. As a phenomenon, it has shown a worrying trend upwards over recent years with only limited efforts towards misfuelling prevention.
At FuelSure we know that the causes of the problem are that people select the wrong pump at filling stations, and that petrol pump nozzles are smaller than diesel nozzles. Given that at the moment there is little in the way of physical prevention, it is possible to fill up a diesel tank with petrol. That is where the real problems start.
If misfuelling has gained the notoriety that it has today, it is because it has grown from being confined to a small group in a relatively limited situation to a problem affecting over approximately 150,000 drivers per year. From being the minority choice for drivers some years ago, diesel engine cars are now accounting for as much as half of all new car sales in the UK. Misfuelling of diesel engine cars accounts for around 85% of all misfuelling mix-ups today. With FuelSure that figure can literally come down to zero.
The reasons are easy to understand. The new generation of diesel cars have motors that are almost as good as petrol engines in terms of power ratings and quietness of operation, are often longer lasting and more reliable (for one thing, they rely less on electrical systems to function correctly), and perhaps above all give significantly better fuel mileage. Some of the German car manufacturers achieve staggeringly good mileage at up to 70 mpg with emission down to as little as 100g/km of CO2. These figures are for standard series production cars, such as the Volkswagen Polo Bluemotion, with the BMW Mini Cooper D showing very similar figures.
The problem of misfuelling not only still exists, but is also growing with the increasing number of new diesel engine cars coming onto the road. A hangover from the change to unleaded petrol for petrol engine cars (the filler neck became narrower to prevent leaded petrol from being used), diesel engine cars and their owners now pay the price because the smaller unleaded petrol pump nozzle can still mistakenly be put into the diesel fuel tank filler neck. FuelSure prevents this from happening.
Together with a public that still has petrol engine habits carved into its collective memory and that instinctively reaches for the petrol pump gun even after changing to a diesel engine car, misfuelling prevention is becoming urgent. We brought out FuelSure, because it’s a situation that needs fixing all the more given that for the same reasons as above, many more company and rental vehicles are now equipped with diesel engines as well.
Given the difficulties for the average English person to deal with the fuel schizophrenia that comes with owning a petrol engine car and also driving a diesel engine company or rental car, fleet operators are paying the price in terms of misfuelling damage that may blow away both profits and customer confidence, as damaged vehicles put back unknowingly into rental circulation end up breaking down and causing havoc for their renters. FuelSure fleet solutions do for fleet operators what FuelSure does for individual drivers.
If you would like to find out more about a simple and effective diesel misfuelling prevention device that solves this problem, call us today on 0845 475 8397 or send us an email via our contacts page.
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