These fuel symbols must know the motorists

New symbols on pumps to make refueling safer. The panels are located at all service stations in Europe – soon also everywhere in Germany.

The pictograms developed by the experts of the standards institutes, the petroleum industry and the automotive industry have been used in all service stations in Europe since mid-October 2018. Germany is moving to Spring 2019. In addition, the symbols will be mounted inside the fuel tank lid of new cars.

Symbols must avoid refueling errors

Each fuel is badigned a geometric shape. For petrol type fuels, there are round symbols with an E and a center number to represent the percentage of bioethanol. Super 95 and Super Plus 98 become E5, Super E10 becomes E10 and Super Ethanol E85 becomes E85.

Circle symbol: essence with 5% ethanol; Square: Diesel with 7% fatty acid methyl ester. (Source: DIN)

Diesel fuels have rectangular symbols with a B and a number representing the share of biodiesel. This can be for example B7, B10 or B100. XTL stands for synthetic diesel.

All gas prices near you: here you can refuel cheap.

For gaseous fuels, there is a diamond symbol and the letters LPG for LPG, LNG for liquid natural gas, CNG for natural gas and H2 for hydrogen.

The new directive applies in principle to all EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Norway and Serbia, as well as to the EU. Switzerland and Turkey.

Left rhombus: compressed natural gas or methane; right: hydrogen gas. (Source: DIN)

Refuel abroad sometimes difficult

The main purpose of the standard is to avoid feeding errors due to the language barrier abroad. Because different Spritsorten often have special national designations. These are not always derived from German or English. Moreover, even in the country, they are not uniform everywhere.

In France, for example, the essence does not call everywhere "essence", but sometimes also "essence". Diesel is called "Gasoil" or "Diesel", in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia "Nafta". The names in Portugal and Spain are particularly confusing: the gas is called "Gasolina", the diesel in many places "Gasoleo".

If in doubt, simply compare the characters

In future, you will need to find the new symbols on the valves, on the fuel nozzles, in the fuel cap and in the vehicle owner's manual. If the symbols on the fuel pump are identical to those of the vehicle, the driver can refuel without hesitation.