The Future Of E85 In Australia (not Looking Good)

[Birds]

United are really pissing me off with their market monopolisation price hike

Can someone explain to me E10 being cheaper than unleaded but E85 being on parity or more with it, as anything other than a cash grab at the niche market who supported United in unrolling and maintaining their E85 investment?

E85 used to be about on par with running 99 octane and the advantage was a big power boost and slightly smoother engine. This is negated when it starts to cost more

They deserve to lose the market to the 98 octane big boys Shell and BP, which is probably what will happen if they can't supply it for cheaper. The hike would surely have made a dent in people switching to it.

[RBrennan25]

Yeah I brought this up somewhere as well, it's absolutely disgusting, especially when e flex is consistently 20c/L cheaper. Do Caltex hate making money or something? Of course not, that's how much it should cost.

I'd understand being a few cents a litre more than Caltex as they use 98 for their 15% unleaded (and the wank factor of 'the official fuel of the V8 supercars') but 20c is obviously a gouge. The problem is, most people will just pay it

[Rheen]

That's what it comes down to in the end. If people will pay it, they will charge it. And even if it was $2/L at the pump, it wouldn't be the end of the world really considering the extra power you get from it and the convenience of having it at the pump compared to storing it somehow illegally at home. And I'd rather it be a bit of a ripoff but still be convenient like that rather than have them drop it completely.

We don't buy E85 for economical or green reasons, it was just a nice coincidence that it was fairly economical as well as better in the past.

The main reason I think it's becoming less economical compared to 98 right now is because the price of oil halved very quickly and the price of ethanol didn't. Once oil goes back up again relatively, then E85 will be an economical option by comparison again. So hopefully United stays with it until then. It's not like the price of E85 has gone up too drastically has it? It's more that unleaded has gone down.

As a separate issue, it seems like in the last month or so, the price of unleaded has gone up and stabilised at that higher price, which I can't really see a reason for. It went down due to the drop in oil prices, but it went up a bit again without the price of oil going up as much. Seems like their margins on unleaded have gotten bigger, rather than their costs.

[T04GTR]

time to bring back avags

[martyspec]

Slightly off topic but whats the cheapest 205l drums of E85 people have found? Im up in Cairns so no pump E85 up here. Also if anyone has any suggestions that may help with transport, thats what really kills us up here. Pm me if thats better.

[Birds]

That's what it comes down to in the end. If people will pay it, they will charge it. And even if it was $2/L at the pump, it wouldn't be the end of the world really considering the extra power you get from it and the convenience of having it at the pump compared to storing it somehow illegally at home. And I'd rather it be a bit of a ripoff but still be convenient like that rather than have them drop it completely.

We don't buy E85 for economical or green reasons, it was just a nice coincidence that it was fairly economical as well as better in the past.

The main reason I think it's becoming less economical compared to 98 right now is because the price of oil halved very quickly and the price of ethanol didn't. Once oil goes back up again relatively, then E85 will be an economical option by comparison again. So hopefully United stays with it until then. It's not like the price of E85 has gone up too drastically has it? It's more that unleaded has gone down.

As a separate issue, it seems like in the last month or so, the price of unleaded has gone up and stabilised at that higher price, which I can't really see a reason for. It went down due to the drop in oil prices, but it went up a bit again without the price of oil going up as much. Seems like their margins on unleaded have gotten bigger, rather than their costs.

If that was true then E10 wouldn't be cheaper than unleaded; it would be more expensive if the ethanol was the expensive component in it's mix, but it's not.

It's jumped by nearly 20 cents a litre and this happened around the time Caltex pulled out of e-flex. They're simply charging it because they can, which is fkin shit for people like me who got on it a couple of years ago and gave them a reason to even stock it. They're not supposed to be making that much money on the shit and economy of scale says it should be getting cheaper with more widespread use, not more expensive.

I bet you if another chain came out with an E85 mix they would instantly take 20 cents a litre off it.

[Birds]

Also $2 a litre might be fine in a race car but if E85 goes up past $1.50 in a street car, with no jump in the price of unleaded or 98, I won't be using it anymore.

[scotty nm35]

Or just run an Ethanol subtank for those high boost days.

[Nismo 3.2ish]

So now there is only one outlet for E85, no wonder United upped their price, supply and demand = they can

Before the oil prices dropped I was paying $1.68 for 98pump up here. I do not remember seeing a United station anywhere up here so I guess there is not much chance of getting it ???

Maybe if Caltex had an extra 20c a Lt on the E85 they would still be selling it ?

[Hadouken]

My Caltex still sells it

[jet_r31]

Oh well..no matter how much it costs..its still easier

And a helluva lot cheaper than buying c16 or roo16 ,which you had to do

In the past before e85 to get that much octane..lol

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Looks like tuners will be making loads of money on flex tunes soon

[BrynDETT]

Payed 146.9 this morning in Brisbane... Is turning out to be expensive  running in the daily ?

[iruvyouskyrine]

still cheaper than 98! just don't look at the odometer between fill ups ?

[sneakey pete]

So they've finally changed the price from the 139.9 that it had been at for the last 2-3 years?

haven't been near a pump since the end of August

[r32-25t]

2 years ago when I first went to e85 it was 119.9 has slowly gone up and I paid 146.9 yesterday. I remember when friends were paying under a $1

[sneakey pete]

Don't forget caltex had/has a different price structure where it was constantly at 'whatever 91 is minus 10 cents'

i wonder if they were actually making money on it.

[niZmO_Man]

If only you could make fuel from strawberries...

[iruvyouskyrine]

for around 6 months i remember paying $0.79/L in Newcastle.

Goooood times.

[Birds]

Lowest I got was 99 cents; they were good times indeed. Cheaper to run than 98 and more power. Now it's more expensive to run but still worth it for the powaaaa...