It is now four years since I started driving a car powered by bio-ethanol. Those four years ended yesterday when I returned the car to the dealer with only a few days left to run on the lease.

The car that I have replaced it with no longer runs on bio-ethanol (E85), although it does use the new E10 fuel.

So how have those four years been and why did I switch back?

Well, whilst on the one hand it was nice to try something new (more…)

Until now, I have either been to my regular petrol station to fill up with bio-ethanol, or I have had a list of places that it is available at on my PDA.

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!

When I first started looking into bio-ethanol, there were just 91 petrol stations in Germany where you could buy it.

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.