Press Release: BMW supports the introduction of Super E10 fuel in Germany and Europe. This is also in accordance with the decision made following the legislative procedure involving BMW and the motor industry.

There have been no changes to the technical assessments which were made for Europe and Germany at the time.

The statements made by Mr Brüner on the matter of E10 use in BMW vehicles expressly did not refer to countries with fuel standards such as those applicable in the EU, but to countries with clearly inferior fuel grades.

In the light of current developments, this was confirmed tonight by Dr Klaus Draeger, Member of the Board of Management BMW AG, Development.

“Contrary to current media reports which state otherwise, we affirm our declaration that E10 fuels can be safely used in all BMW passenger car models from any production year.

A small number of older BMW vehicles require Super Plus RON 98 to reduce knock. Irrespective of ethanol content, these vehicles are therefore not suited for Super fuel. The relevant list of these vehicles was already published by the ADAC on March 1st this year.

All oil-change intervals as prescribed by us remain unchanged, irrespective of the use of E10 fuel.”

E10 fuels can safely be used in all BMW passenger cars from all model years. However, irrespective of ethanol content, the minimum octane rating as specified in the user manual must be observed as before, since some BMW models require Super Plus RON 98 to reduce knock.

Regrettably, in the Welt am Sonntag report of 6th of  March, insufficient attention was paid to the crucial statement which clearly refers to E10:

“The use of E10 fuels in our petrol engines is fundamentally safe.”

The aforementioned report links the use of E10 and condensation water getting into the engine oil.

In this connection, we would like to make the following clear:

  1. The condensation effect is a side effect of the normal combustion process – independently of the use of E10 – and therefore does not pose a problem.
  2. The oil-change intervals defined by BMW are not affected and therefore remain unchanged.
  3. The report’s falsely claimed link between the use of E10 fuel and “more rapid engine wear” does not exist.

All aspects concerning E10 were assessed as part of the cross-manufacturer associative work well in advance of the introduction of E10. This gave rise to an information sheet by DAT Deutsche Automobil Treuhand GmbH (German automobile trust), which takes a clear stand on the compatibility of E10 on a manufacturer-wide basis and clarifies the issue for customers (available on the internet atwww.dat.de/e10).

[Source: BMW ]