US Car Makers Want To Make Premium Petrol The New Minimum
American car makers are pushing for a national switch from three petrol octane ratings to just one, in an attempt to gain extra fuel economy and lower their overall emissions.
General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler are ‘working with’ the US Council for Automotive Research to try to standardise 95 RON unleaded – the same standard used across Europe. Under the American system it’s currently known as 91-octane, because the US adds the Research Octane Number (RON) to the Motor Octane Number (MON) and divides the result by two.
The move would most likely involve shifting to the RON-only system used elsewhere in the world, standardising to 95-octane with different suppliers offering various grades of super-unleaded, from 97-99 RON.
Eliminating the lower grades of fuel would give consumers a three per cent fuel economy boost across the board, the car makers say, with a lower-than-three per cent increase in cost to the consumer. Fewer types of fuel to refine means cost savings for refineries, and engine makers could squeeze extra efficiency (and power) out of their motors with finer tuning, purely because they’d no longer need to be capable of running on the low-grade fuel.
Dan Nicholson, General Motors’ vice president of global propulsion systems, said:
“We have an opportunity to play a large role in offering consumers the most affordable option for fuel economy improvement and greenhouse gas reduction.
“We believe a higher efficiency gasoline solution with a higher Research Octane Number is very important to achieving this. USCAR research shows that 95 RON makes sense from the viewpoints of both refiners and fuel retailers.”
At present, 95 RON fuel in the US is at least 50 cents per gallon more expensive than the basic stuff. As such, there’s likely to be a fair amount of resistance among the public. American CTzens: would you be happy to make the switch, or do you already run your cars on the good stuff anyway?
Sources: Automotive News via Motor Authority
Comments
If the cost did go down to “less than three percent increase” then I would be happy with the switch, but right now when 87 costs $2.50 in my area and 91 cost $3, that is a pretty big jump that I wouldn’t be happy with
I’ve seen 93 nearing $4.00 downtown…
Weren’t we just celebrating that it got under $2.00 like yesterday? Lol
Same in my area
Where I am, about an hour south of Seattle, the cost is about $3.10/gallon for 87 octane and nearly $3.75 for 93 octane at some stations.
and standard fuel in the UK costs £1.20 a litre. thats still dirt cheap. A U.S gallon for the sake of maths rounding is nearish 4 litres. UK petrol is £4.80 a gallon. roughly 6-7 bucks…
normal cars when they realize that they can’t use premium fuel
there was supposed to be an angry pepe here
I got a little excited when I saw “… make premium the new minimum” than I realized that means 91 and not the Texas Go-Go juice (93 octane) I’m accustomed to, but still a step in the right direction.
Increase economy…and no doubt profit margins
I am calling into question the accuracy of their data in real world conditions. Studies have proven time and time again that fuel economy does not increase in a car that is tuned to run regular fuel rather than premium. For that reason alone, regular fuel should not be phased out in the foreseeable future. However, if new cars tuned to run premium rather can obtain better fuel economy than their regular fuel counterparts, than perhaps it should be an option left on the table for the future. In my opinion though, this looks like a quick way for big oil to once again increase its profit margins and until further impartial studies are conducted to back up these statements, regular fuel should be the norm for daily drivers.
Studies have proven time and time again that fuel economy does not increase in a car that is tuned to run regular fuel rather than premium.
That’s exactly the point. The manufactures want to standardize RON 95 (AKI 91) so they can tune all their engines to that, which means that they will be able to get the higher efficiency from the better fuel. This is common practice in Europe and in most places around the world, RON 95 is the standard here and many performance cars even require RON 98 (AKI 93).
Americans should try paying what we do in the uk for premium fuel then you will start complaining about the cost of fuel, you guys don’t understand how cheap you have it
We understand just fine… but it’s still annoying when it basically doubles in price over one season. It doesn’t matter the actual nominal amount in that regard.
You should try paying what we pay for healthcare..
The v8 must be a rare thing then. Many people here have only owned them
Average petrol price in the UK is £1.19 which is equal to $1.68 however that’s per liter. One US Gallon is 3.8 liters which would cost £4.52 in the UK which is equal to $6.38
The equivalent fuel in the US costs about $3.80 in comparison.
That’s $2.58 cheaper than in the UK (or £1.83) which makes US fuel 40.5% cheaper… Maybe I should move to the US…
That’s why even my daily is a V8 that takes premium and I don’t even care lol
First of all no power or economy increase unless it’s only tuned to run that. + gas is already expensive so no reason to make it more expensive
I run 92 and its like 3.57 a gallon. I feel my soul being sucked iut when i fill my tank
What currency is that cause that’s fairly cheap lol
USD. Thats near Seattle. Its alot cheaper in other parts of the country. It’s 10 cents more per gallon than diesel.
Well as long as it evens out, I’m fine with it.
I run my car on premium but i absolutely do not support something like this. Cost of living has shot through the roof in most places here and wages havent changed much. Something like this would just make things worse in addition to the fact that theres plenty of older cars that have absolutely zero need for premium fuel