But this week I discovered that there is a E85 POI (point of interest) overlay for TomTom navigation kits.

I downloaded and installed it using the TomTom HOME software, and sure enough: I can now ask it to find me a petrol station selling bio-ethanol anywhere in Germany.  I hope that the file is kept up-to-date as more places start selling it, and when I next travel further away I’ll be sure to try it out!

Rather than start working out if I would make it on the litres that I had left to the next available bio-ethanol retailer, I decided to do something that I had managed to avoid until now:

I mixed Super (95 Octane) with Bio-ethanol (E85)!

Actually, that probably isn’t such a big deal.  But it was a strange experience after almost 2 years to drive to a normal petrol station and put normal petrol into the car.

Not only was I slightly apprehensive as to how the motor would react to the next mix, but I was also slightly shocked at the price.  I’m used to the litres counting up faster than the Euros, only this time things were the other way round.

But everything worked out fine, and as expected the fuel efficiency (litres per 100km) even improved slightly.  All the same, I hope it doesn’t happen too often.

Today, probably for the first time since, I downloaded a new version of the list from e85.biz, and discovered that the number has gone up to 251!

There is even an alternative to my usual supplier in the neighbouring town, so I will be able to go there if I need to.  Until now I have not needed to fill up anywhere else.  Perhaps I should try it out, if only for the experience.

For the first time, I had to make a detour to fill up with bio-ethanol, meaning that I had to leave earlier to allow enough time to drive to Bad Homburg before I hit the motorway.

Of course, I could have driving down the road to the nearest petrol station and filled up with normal 95-octane fuel, but with that sort of fuel costing around 50% more than bio-ethanol, I felt it was worth making the detour.

But the whole situation did make me conscious of the restrictions of the bio-ethanol fuel.  After all, I don’t get as many kilometres out of a tank as I used to with normal petrol.  I quick check of the list of petrol stations that stock E85 also showed me that there was nothing suitable in the area that I was travelling to.  Well, at least not without going out of my way and looking for it.

So in the end I took the quickest option and visited my usual petrol station, and wished it hadn’t been necessary.  Will the main petrol stations, especially those on motorway service stations, ever start stocking bio-ethanol?

Well, perhaps we are going to return to that kind of service. I’ve been fascinated today by a video of a petrol station in the Netherlands, that uses a robot arm to fill up the cars.

The robot knows from the type of car how to open the petrol cap, and presumably whether or not to put diesel in. I wonder how it copes with bio-ethanol?

It looked rather slow at the moment, so I guess the queues at the petrol station near here would just get longer. I also didn’t see anywhere to pay for the petrol – does the robot arm swipe your credit card as well?

As fascinating as it is, I’m still not too sure what to make of it all. It may be nice not to have to get out of your car, but it doesn’t help the unemployment figures!