Adulterated fuel: Motorists break down after filling up, water found in petrol

Twelve gas stations in Normandy received adulterated fuel on Monday, December 9, 2024. Several motorists broke down shortly after filling up. TotalEnergies is committed to covering the repair costs.

The number of victims could exceed a hundred, according to our colleagues at Paris Normandie. All of them put 95 unleaded petrol in the tank of their vehicles on Monday morning, December 9, before breaking down a few kilometers later.

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“Many of us have broken down”, testified one of the victims, whose story was shared on the Facebook page Infos trafic Le Havre (see below). “It's incredible”, said one of the region’s repairers, who had made about thirty interventions in the morning.

Compensation for victims

The cause of these numerous outages was identified a few hours later by TotalEnergies. “Water has been detected in the Unleaded 95 E10 fuel distributed in twelve stations of the TotalEnergies network in Normandy. This presence of water causes breakdowns after approximately ten kilometers traveled”, explained the company in a press release to Paris-Normandie.

The distribution of SP95-E10 gasoline, the only fuel concerned, has been suspended in the affected stations.

TotalEnergies assured that it will cover “the costs related to this incident” for the victims, who are invited to come forward quickly and to keep proof of their visit to the station, such as the ticket or proof of purchase.