The number of ethanol filling stations in Sweden is increasing rapidly. The largest stakeholders on the Swedish market include Statoil, Shell and OKQ8. Statoil had around 55 E85 filling station pumps in operation this summer. By the end of 2006 this number will have increased to 120. In one year (October 2004-2005) Statoil has seen its sales of E85 increase by a staggering 750%. Statoil currently sells 870,000 litres, and has a market share of 14%.
In April 2005 OKQ8 was the market leader with 77 pumps and a market share of 50%. However, the company now operates 109 pumps (November 2005).
In April 2005 the number of cars in Sweden using E85 totalled 15,000. This is double the amount at this time last year. The expectation is that this number will continue to increase, partly because there are now more types on the market.
The following car marks and models are currently available on the Swedish market: Ford Focus FFV, Ford Focus C-Max FFV, US Ford Taurus FFV, SAAB 95 Biopower and Volvo S40 FFV/ V50 FFV.
The new Saab 95 Biopower is a real flexi-fuel vehicle and runs well on E85. The car has a 2-litre turbo engine and, according to automotive journalists, gives a powerful performance. Even more amazing, the bioethanol provides an extra 30pk of power compared to normal car. The Biopower accelerates from zero to 100 km/hr in 9.7 seconds.
Sweden also has the largest number of buses running on ethanol: next year this will be 400. This means that around 25% of the Swedish buses are running on biofuels. By 2011 this percentage will have increased to 50%.
Around 25% of the ethanol used comes from three Swedish plants. The other 75% comes from Brazil, which produces over 15 billion litres of ethanol per year, primarily from sugar cane. 'This is a lucrative raw material for ethanol.' Over 15,000 farmers cultivate the sugar, while 350 factories distil these crops into alcohol. |
