About 49 million private cars drive on the roads between Flensburg and Munich. Despite the addition of 368,000 fully electric private cars in the first half of 2026, the number of electric cars still amounts to approximately 2.4 million cars. As for cars whose engines run on conventional fuel, there are 47 million cars. These cars are expected to continue consuming fuel. According to estimates by the Fraunhofer Institute for Environment, Security and Energy Technologies, fossil fuels will continue to play a major role in the coming years. Not only in the field of heavy transport, agriculture and logistics, but also in the private automobile sector. As for Aral, the leading company in the German market and a subsidiary of the British BP Group, it assumes that cars powered by internal combustion engines will continue to drive on German roads for many years to come. Therefore, it is conducting extensive research in the field of fuel at the company’s headquarters in Bochum. It is true that gasoline or diesel cannot be reinvented, but the company's motto and motive is to improve them.
In Germany, there are about 14,000 gas stations of various brands, with about 42 billion liters flowing from their taps annually. With 2,400 stations, Aral remains the largest gas station provider in Germany. The blue-and-white oil company records more than two million customer interactions daily. In the context of the mobility transformation, the company is not, in the words of Aral spokesman Kay Krishnak, “starting from an either-or approach, but rather from a standpoint of both,” in the combustion engine space it is focusing “on solutions for existing vehicles” and has thus invested early in expanding its fuel portfolio. In other words: in fuel research. This research institution has existed for 100 years at the company's headquarters in Bochum.
Today, about 80 employees work in the laboratories located on an area of 27,000 square meters. The team includes chemists, engineers, natural scientists and technicians. Dr. Wenzel Struijk, Aral Fuel Technology Project Manager, is supervising the development of new fuels. "It takes about five years to develop a new fuel before it becomes available at gas stations," Struijk says. "The first step is simply a new product idea. The second step is followed by a lot of theory." The decision to conduct laboratory testing is made only when simulations and modeling produce reliable results. Then it comes down to the issue of feasibility.
After all, fuel contains hundreds of different components. The balance in their composition affects performance and emissions resulting from the manufacturing process, as well as the cleanliness of engines. The process of producing “new fuel” only begins when the “mix” is right. For this purpose there is a special experimental facility on site. About five liters can be produced per day in this type of mini refinery. And then "the most exciting part of the development process" begins for Wenzel Struijk. This happens when new fuels are tested in real engines. “Then we will see if it works the way the data and experiments previously promised.” Only then does the road become open to the fueling stations. Testing is also carried out in dedicated climate chambers to determine the temperature ranges in which the fuel remains flexible, in simple terms, from more than 40 degrees to extreme sub-zero temperatures.
Aral does not disclose the amount of money it allocates from the group's treasury for scientific research. But she does not hesitate to announce news of her successes. Among these achievements is the high-performance Aral Ultimate Diesel, launched on the market in 2024, which contains at least 15 percent renewable and hydrogenated fuel components and achieves a 12 percent reduction in CO2 emissions compared to pure fossil diesel. We should also not forget to increase the range by an average of 60 kilometers and more for each tank filling. Renewable components are playing a crucial role in the development of new fuels. The range of materials being tested in Bochum ranges from waste frying oils to paper or wood processing waste. Finally, Wenzel Struijk confirms that fuels containing renewable components can contribute to reducing carbon dioxide emissions. This is because in the private car sector, “millions of internal combustion engine vehicles will remain on the road for decades to come.” “The process of switching to electric energy in the heavy transport sector will be slower,” Struijk adds.
So more research is still needed on gasoline and diesel. According to estimates of Andreas Meine, Head of the Department “Carbon Use and Synthetic Fuels” at the Fraunhofer Institute, biofuels can indeed “make an important contribution, but they are not the only solution because the available quantities are limited compared to the total fuel needs.” Therefore, Minh says, “we are expected to need fossil fuels for a very long time.” In Germany, about 50 million tons of diesel, gasoline and kerosene extracted from fossil sources are consumed annually. If these quantities were completely replaced by sustainable synthetic fuels, Minh calculates, “it would require about 180 million tons of carbon dioxide, 25 million tons of hydrogen, and 1,500 terawatt-hours of renewable electricity to produce.” This is a calculation that will not be achieved so quickly. From a mobility and environmental perspective, every liter of gasoline or diesel in the tank of an internal combustion engine car that can be saved thanks to fuel research is already of great importance today. That's why Aral in Bochum continues to work on fine-tuning the details.
