2023-09-23 10:30:00
the essentials The surge in fuel prices, sales operations at cost price as well as the frozen prices at TotalEnergies are reviving an old debate: gasoline and diesel are of lower quality in supermarkets. What regarding it?
We’ll call him Vincent. A salesman, he has a fuel card which allows him to refuel at all the service stations of a large oil group. “I obviously run on diesel and for me, there is no such thing. We also discuss it regularly with truck drivers: supermarket diesel is less efficient.” Next to him, the driver of a heavy goods vehicle nods at the checkout: “and then you go to the mechanic more often,” he adds.
Behind the counter, the boss is also a mechanic. He nods. At the corner of a market, a street trader notes for his part that “of course, it is cheaper in hypermarkets, but we go less far, we do fewer kilometers with the same tank”, he assures in front of its already aged utility. As for gasoline? More or less the same story that comes up around the pumps, among SP95 customers…
Supermarket “leader product” fuels
A conversation that is nothing new. For several years now, we have regularly heard that the fuels of large and medium-sized stores (GMS which have 5,000 stations and more than 60% of the throughput) are “less good” than those of brands (5,800 retailers). However, with the surge in prices, a majority of motorists are looking to go for the most economical option. Hence a rush towards supermarket service stations where fuel is sold less expensively than at the big oil brands…
All the less expensive, moreover, as these large food stores occasionally reduce their margins as much as possible to make them “call products”, recalled in substance on the MoneyVox site Jacques Creyssel, president of the Fédération du commerce et de distribution, in 2021 when the liter was close to €2. But do these “gains” that the consumer makes on a full tank come at the expense of the health of the engine?
The secret of additives
National president of service stations and new energies for Mobilians (former National Council of Automotive Professions), Francis Pousse represents the 5,800 retailers of “traditional stations”, excluding supermarkets. “Yes, our fuels are better,” he says. “Each oil company puts in place specific manufacturing and additive rules in order to be of the highest quality, with a very standardized and controlled process,” he explains. “These are either comfort additives like antifoam for diesel, for example, or technical additives which will improve combustion. They will prevent the engine from being clogged by fuel or oil residues. not burned. The motorist will therefore travel more kilometers with less degradation, his engine will gain longevity but it will also release fewer pollutants”, explains Francis Pousse.
“With an oil brand, there is quality monitoring,” he then argues, pointing out, on the contrary, large stores “which buy from the lowest bidder and sometimes foreign fuels, hence the differences.”
“Urban legend”
But as for talking regarding fuels presumed to be of lower quality in supermarkets, there is a step that Pierre Chasseray will not take. “This is more of an urban legend than anything else”, estimates the latter, for 40 Million Motorists. Gasoline or diesel, it’s the same quality for everything basic. Fuels for service stations and large retailers come from the same depots. On the other hand, what is true is that at major brand service stations, you find “additive” and “premium” products. One of the properties of these fuels is to clean engines, which consequently reduces consumption. In this sense, it is not wrong to say that they are “better” for the car but that does not mean that supermarket products are “bad” for vehicles,” he concludes.
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