SPECIAL REPORT
Top supplier reveals that it is looking to expand the number of synthetic fuel outlets this year - but support from the top is needed for mass adoption
Classic-friendly petrol that doesn’t rely on fossil fuel needs support ‘at the highest levels’ if it’s to become widely used in older vehicles.
Synthetic fuel producer, Coryton, has reported that tens of thousands of litres of its SUSTAIN fuel found applications and users in 2023 – before adding that further expansion will require Parliamentary support.There is currently only one public filling station where owners can fill up with SUSTAIN Classic – the Motor Spirit centre at Bicester Heritage.
Coryton’s CEO, Andrew Willson, said: ‘We see 2024 as being a vitally important year for sustainable fuel. More conversations are being had and more successful examples of the fuel in action are being seen. But it needs to go further; we need greater acknowledgement and adoption of sustainable fuel technology as a viable and credible option for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions.
‘For that to happen we need support at the highest levels and an acceptance that our best chance to tackle climate change lies in using all the available technologies to help address different requirements. Encouraging further discussion and understanding will therefore be a big focus for us this year.’
Asecond distributor has been confirmedat The Splined Hub in Oundle, Northamptonshire, set to start pumping later this year.
Greg Smith MP, who sits on Parliament’s Transport Committee and is a supporter of classics, said: ‘We need to embrace synthetic fuels so they can be scaled. But manufacturers need the confidence that government regulation will permit it and there lies our problem.
‘Governments across the world are set to test environmental credentials by the emissions from the tail pipe, favouring electric vehicles in the zero-emission mandate, the ‘Zed Mandate’. If these important fuels won’t be permitted in new vehicles it is unlikely that scale will be achieved to support these companies and our classics.
So my argument, which I’ve made in parliament, is that the Zed Mandate needs to change. The science says that the mandate is wrong and blind to the carbon in recaptured carbon fuels being truly net zero.’
The Transport and Healthy Streets Spokesperson for the Green Party, Councillor Matt Edwards, told CCW: ‘We wel
