The minister of Environment, Pieter van Geel and Alderman Environment of Rotterdam , Roelf de Boer inagurated the first pump in beginning of June in Rotterdam. The pump is opened by the company Argos, one of the larger independent oil companies in the Netherlands.
At that time there was six Flexifuel cars in operation in Rotterdam, four of the owned by the city. Another 12 were by that time ordered by Roteb, from whom among others Rotterdam City Surveillance & Control and Public Works of Rotterdam leases their cars. With the opening of the first pump these cars can also fuel E85. the opening of the pump and the purchase of Flexifuel vehicles the market can develop further. The price of the fuel will play an important role in this. Unfortunately the E85 price still exceeds the price of conventional euro 95 petrol with the present excise regulation. During the first year of the BEST project, a compensation is given on the extra excise levy which results in a bio-ethanol cost close to the cost of fueling with euro 95. After this year government measures must make the the price of renewables competitive compared to petrol. The policy letter on biofuels of the State Secretary gives favourable perspective.