Today it was announced that as of October 12th, 2018 the gas stations in EU will have to place new labels on their pumps. These stickers will help the customers to differentiate the fuels thus making it easier for drivers to choose the right fuel for their vehicle. The new labeling system will be mandatory and the placement of the label should be close to the nozzle as well as on the nozzle itself.
Non EU countries like Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway, FYROM, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey will adopt the new labeling system.
The new EU Directive 2014/94 /EU will also affect the car manufaturers. The Directive requires that manufaturers of all vehicles that will be registered after October 11, 2018 (like passenger cars, light commercial vehicles, heavy goods vehicles, buses and coaches, mopeds, motorcycles, three- and four-wheeled vehicles) have to place a fuel identification sticker on each vehicle.
The new labels across the European market will look like this:
Gasoline (labels with circle)
The Ε5 label will designate lead-free gasoline of 95 and 98 octanes with up to 5% volume percent in ethanol.
The Ε10 label will designate lead-free gasoline with up to 10% volume percent in ethanol.
The Ε85 label will designate lead-free gasoline with up to 85% volume percent in ethanol.
The letter E designates the addition of Ethanol
Diesel (labels with square)
The B7 label will designate diesel with up to 7% volume percent in biodiesel.
The B10 label will designate diesel with up to 10% volume percent in biodiesel.
The XTL label will designate paraffinic diesel synthetic fuel (like GTL diesel). (see here)
The letter B designates the addition of Biodiesel
Gaseous fuels labels
These labels are about alternative fuels and are more or less self-explanatory:
The H2 label will designate hydrogen.
The CNG label will designate compressed natural gas.
The LPG label will designate liquefied petroleum gas.
The LNG label will designate liquefied natural gas.
Find more information here: www.fuel-identifiers.eu/docs/QA-consumers-EN.pdf
UPDATE (October 29th, 2018)
Greek authorites postponed the application of the law (Ν. 4546/2018, article 29) for the 1st of January 2019. Ethanol will be 1% in the beginning and 3.3% as of 2020.