Fleet News Awards 2010: Best Technical Innovation

Ford's intelligent refuelling system – Easy Fuel - has been named Best Technical Innovation at the 2010 Fleet News awards.

Easy Fuel prevents petrol from being put into a diesel-engined vehicle. This is a common occurrence, especially in fleets where drivers often get behind the wheel of different cars.
It is not only an inconvenient mistake – a misfuelled car can be off the road for anything between a few hours and weeks depending on the damage caused to the engine – but it is also an expensive error with repairs sometimes running to thousands of pounds.

More than 150,000 misfuelling cases are reported annually, which the AA estimates costs private motorists and fleets £24 million a year. Misfuelling damage is also often not covered by insurance.

To address the problem, Ford’s engineers developed the Easy Fuel system, which consists of a sealed filler pipe insert and a fuel nozzle locator that guides the nozzle to the tank opening. The insert contains an automatic diameter detector with multi-sensors which only allow larger diesel nozzles to be inserted.

The system was first introduced in the Mondeo in 2007 before being rolled out across the car range and Fiesta Van. Now 300,000 Ford vehicles cannot be misfuelled.

Judges’ comments
Ford’s innovative Easy Fuel system eliminates a problem that can cost thousands of pounds each time a car is misfuelled. Simple, but highly effective, and with 300,000 units installed, it is having a significant impact on fleet drivers. As one judge put it: “If I could have only one of these innovations this is the one I’d go for.”

Goodyear was highly commended by the judges

Shortlist