Transport & Environment — 2026-04-23
Land transportation
New analysis assesses the price of running a car on advanced biofuels versus an electric vehicle.
Biofuels are being touted as an affordable alternative to oil during the energy crisis, but new research finds that pure HVO, the most widely promoted ‘drop in’ replacement for fossil fuels, is 79% more expensive, on average, than charging an electric car. T&E called on EU lawmakers to resist pressure to weaken carmakers’ CO2 targets by counting vehicles that can only use expensive biofuels as zero emission.
Charging an EV costs €7 per 100km driven, on average, in the EU – while pure HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) would cost €13 to cover the same distance, the T&E analysis finds. The German and Italian governments and the European car industry want to weaken EU car CO2 targets – which are a major driver of more affordable EV models – by counting combustion cars running on advanced biofuels as zero emissions. This is despite there not being enough advanced biofuels to go around.
If the car lobby succeeds, motorists could be pushed into buying even more expensive biofuels technologies due to the limited amount of HVO available. Less mature biofuels technologies – from feedstocks such as the biomass portion of municipal solid waste or cellulosic residues – could be 80% to 110% more costly than driving a BEV on average, the research finds.
Émilie Casteignau Bernardini, vehicles policy manager at T&E, said: “Charging an EV is far cheaper than filling up a tank on advanced biofuels. By promoting biofuels for cars, the car industry wants to leave drivers with the bill while it delays electrification. On the contrary, maintaining the EU targets will ensure an increasing supply of more affordable EVs and avoid expensive diversions into HVO and other biofuels that cannot be scaled sustainably.”
The high biofuels prices are likely to be exacerbated in the future by putting motorists in competition with the aviation industry for the limited amounts of sustainable advanced biofuels available. Jet fuel suppliers have a high incentive to purchase advanced biofuels as the EU’s sustainable aviation fuels mandate (ReFuelEU) sets penalties which are twice the price difference between fossil jet fuel and biofuels.
While the EU Commission does not go as far as the German and Italian governments, it has proposed to award biofuels credits to carmakers. The Commission proposal would lead to a 60% increase in fuel spending in 2050 compared to the current regulation, T&E calculates. As a result, an additional €500 billion would need to be spent on fuel by European car drivers between 2025 and 2050 than under the current law.
T&E said rejecting the proposed biofuel credits would reduce motorists’ bills, accelerate the shift to e-mobility, and cut Europe's reliance on imported fossil fuels and potentially unsustainable or fraudulent biofuels feedstocks. EVs already shield drivers from the higher petrol prices caused by the energy crisis. With oil prices surpassing $100 a barrel, the additional cost of fueling a petrol car is expected to be five times the extra cost of charging an electric car, an earlier T&E analysis found.