France Fuel Prices: E85, LPG and Oil Risks

The clearest winner is E85. At about 0.85 euro a litre, it cuts a 40-litre fill-up to roughly 34 euros, less than half the cost of standard unleaded. Conversions are not free — a homologated flex-fuel kit costs around 500 to 1,000 euros — but the payback is fast for drivers who clock regular mileage. Pierre Chasseray, head of the 40 Millions d’Automobilistes association, said the investment can be recouped in about a year, assuming about 50% fuel savings. That matters for consumers, but also for the broader fuel market: when price gaps widen this much, demand can shift quickly toward lower-taxed, partially renewable fuels.

The fiscal gap is the reason. E85 benefits from a much lighter tax burden than gasoline, with France’s TICPE set at 12 centimes a litre versus 67 centimes for petrol. That gives E85 a structural advantage that oil-product price moves alone cannot erase. For investors, that makes the fuel more resilient than a simple discount product: as long as policy support remains intact, E85 retains a built-in price floor relative to conventional gasoline.

LPG is a more mixed proposition. At about 1.06 euro a litre, it is still cheaper than petrol, and dual-fuel conversions are available for roughly 3,000 euros. But the economics are weaker because the upfront cost is higher and the network is thin. Only around 1,500 of France’s roughly 10,000 stations sell LPG, according to France Gaz Liquides. That limits adoption, especially outside dense urban corridors and fleet use. The investment case is therefore narrower than for E85: attractive for high-mileage owners, less compelling for the average driver.

The riskiest alternatives are also the most viral online. Rapeseed oil, which sells for around 1.47 euros a litre, may look like an obvious substitute for diesel, but mechanics warn it can clog injectors and fuel pumps, reducing power and causing breakdowns. There is also a legal barrier: vegetable oils are not authorized motor fuels under French customs rules, and using red-dyed non-road diesel in a private car can bring a 135-euro fine and vehicle seizure. Those penalties matter because they erase any short-term savings and highlight how much of the “cheap fuel” conversation is really about regulatory arbitrage, not genuine efficiency.

Hydrogen, meanwhile, remains a distant option rather than a mass-market answer. France has just 66 hydrogen refuelling stations for about 1,155 vehicles, underscoring the gulf between technological promise and consumer reality. For investors in mobility, that means the near-term substitution story is still dominated by liquid fuels and conversion kits, not by a wholesale shift to new vehicle architectures.

The broader narrative is that high fuel prices are forcing a re-rating of what counts as a viable alternative. In the short term, legal and relatively mature options such as E85 and, to a lesser extent, LPG can absorb some of the stress on households. Over time, however, the market remains constrained by infrastructure, taxation and vehicle compatibility. That leaves consumers with a familiar trade-off: pay more at the pump, or save money only if the alternative is legal, mechanically compatible and used long enough to justify the conversion cost.