What E10 is
E10 is standard 95 octane unleaded petrol containing up to 10 per cent bioethanol. It is the petrol most UK drivers put in most cars, and at most forecourts it is the cheaper of the two petrol grades on the pump.
When it became the standard grade
The Department for Transport states that standard grade (95 octane) petrol became E10 in Great Britain in September 2021 and in Northern Ireland in November 2022. Source: GOV.UK, “E10 petrol explained”.
Can my vehicle use it?
The great majority of petrol vehicles can. Some older cars, motorcycles, mopeds and classics cannot, and running them on E10 can damage fuel system components over time. The Department for Transport publishes a vehicle checker for exactly this question, and it is the right place to settle it — see GOV.UK, “E10 petrol explained”. We are a price site and we do not attempt to answer it for you.
Does E10 affect fuel economy?
Ethanol carries less energy per litre than petrol, so a tank of E10 contains slightly less energy than the same tank of E5. In practice the difference is small. We have not measured this ourselves and we are not going to quote a figure we cannot stand behind — if the difference matters to you, your own miles-per-tank over a few tanks is better evidence than any number we could print.
How it appears in the data
The Fuel Finder scheme reports this fuel with the code E10. In the data behind this site, 0 of 8,077 forecourts report a price for it — more than for any other fuel.
No forecourt in the file we hold reported a price for this fuel. That is a statement about the data, not about the fuel.