Comment by skissane
4 days ago
That directive was implemented in the UK by The Motor Fuel (Composition and Content) Regulations 1999 (as amended) - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/3107/made
Part III makes it illegal to sell leaded petrol in the UK without a government permit
No idea how many of these permits have been issued
Thanks. I too have no idea. I searched some FOIA sites but of course "lead" the element has the same spelling as "lead" the verb and noun, so e.g. in documents about fuel "Lead counsel" and "Lead role" aren't about the chemical additive. Maybe somebody asked but I didn't find it, and maybe nobody asked.
The permits are technically called "leaded petrol permits". Unlike "lead", I don't think "leaded" is commonly used with alternative meanings. Another useful search term is "tetraethyl" – the compound in leaded petrol is "tetraethyl lead" (also spelt "tetraethyllead" or "TEL") – while "tetraethyl" can occur in non-lead compounds, in practice the lead-based compound is mentioned much more frequently than other tetraethyl compounds such as tetraethylsilane.
If you read the regulations, they provide for the permits to be issued to members of the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs, since some classic cars have difficulty running on unleaded petrol. https://www.fbhvc.co.uk/fuels says "the Federation lobbied successfully to secure an EU concession for the sale of leaded petrol in the UK, a concession which survives to this day, although current sales outlets are few in number, and the uptake of the product is quite small. In part, the difficulty of setting up a satisfactory distribution for leaded petrol for the use of historic vehicles, is proof of the general truth that a good distribution system for specialised fuels for historic road vehicles is not a viable commercial proposition". It sounds like there may still be a small handful of isolated places where you can legally purchase small quantities of leaded petrol in the UK for use with classic cars – more likely the clubhouse of a classic car club, or a mechanic who specialises in such vehicles, than an ordinary petrol station.
The regulations also exempt military vehicles, but I'd be surprised if there was any remaining use of leaded petrol in the UK military.
The regulations apply to land transport vehicles, not avgas. Leaded avgas is still legally used in the UK for general aviation, despite repeated attempts to move away from it.
Good idea on "leaded".
> also exempt military vehicles, but I'd be surprised if there was any remaining use of leaded petrol in the UK military.
Modern tanks are diesels yeah. However the UK has a lot of enthusiasts who own (obsolete and of course also de-fanged) tanks. And I can totally believe some of the archaic designs used leaded petrol. On the other hand, even a brand new production tank is very thirsty so realistically if you aren't trying to do a "Brewster's Millions" you would not actually drive your tank very far.