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I am driving a car with a Diesel engine. I always thought that "Gazole" and "Diesel" were synonymous to each other, only to drive in a gas station which mentioned both terms, as in "Gazole" and "Diesel extra".

This made me wonder if there is a difference between both terms. My car seems to function normally on both. So I guess if there is a difference it must be on the additives added to the fuel. It could also be that one is for agricultural purposes and the other isn't (similar to Red Diesel in the Benelux).

So my question: What is the difference between Gazole and Diesel in French. Am I allowed to use both with a general purpose vehicle?

hippietrail
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4 Answers4

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Gazole and Diesel are synonyms. They both mean diesel fuel, as opposed to essence or super (short for supercarburant, nobody uses the long form) which means usual car gasoline.

You must use the type of fuel that's appropriate for your car, either gazole or super. I think that diesel engines are more common in cars in France than in most other countries.

The extra word extra means a type of fuel that has advantages compared with non-extra, either to mileage or to engine longevity. As far as I know, the term diesel extra is not regulated, it is only a commercial name chosen by this or that brand.

Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
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  • are essence and super not different in the sense that essence is unleaded, where as super should be used in vintage cars? –  Aug 27 '12 at 20:37
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    @Andra The words are polysemic. Essence can mean old-style gasoline (discontinued in the 1980s, I think), or a broaded meaning that includes leaded super (which used to be a higher-grade alternative to plain essence) as well as unleaded gasoline (supercarburant sans plomb), or sometimes any fuel that you'd put in a car (including diesel). Super could mean leaded or unleaded. It's usually clear in context. If you ask for essence or super now in a gas station in France, you'll get unleaded gasoline. If you complain about the price of essence, it covers diesel as well. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Aug 27 '12 at 20:53
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    "are essence and super not different in the sense that essence is unleaded" in short No. there is no leaded petrol whatsoever available in France. "super" is, basically, just high octane unleaded. – Fattie Jun 26 '15 at 01:44
  • Leaded fuel has been banned in the EU for 15 years (almost all countries have either banned it, or are in some phase of banning it). – Martin Tournoij Jun 27 '15 at 00:35
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Gazole and Diesel are synonyms - end of story.

Regarding the confusion over brand names such as "Gazole Supra!" "Diesel Ultra!" "Diesel Mega!" etc...

...for example Totale has "Total Excellium" !

http://www.total.fr/mes-deplacements/tout-savoir-sur-les-carburants-total.html

enter image description here

That is nothing more than a registered product name.

(Exactly like "Big Mac" or "Toyota Corolla".)

BP has "ultimate" (for both Gazole-aka-Diesel, and, essence).

enter image description here

(Note that in that example it happens to be officially named "bp ultimate diesel" (apparently in lower case) and they add the word gasoil after that in the blue and green logo .. presumably because gasoil is more of a French word than diesel; you know about the requirements for French language in advertising in France.)

I believe the confusion over the addendum "extra" is that you are simply seeing product names, that have exciting words (such as "extra" or "ultimate") added on the end.

There is no special meaning to "extra" or these other brand-names. And, certainly, gazole / diesel are precisely the same thing: there is absolutely no difference between the two - they are literally synonyms.

Fattie
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While driving through France Sept. 2019 we frequently encountered pumps vending two grades of "gasoil" (what the French call diesel fuel). One was labeled simply "gasoil" and the other something like "super" or "ultra" gasoil, both of the same brand. My diesel driving brother-in-law wasn't sure of the difference and always used the cheaper of the two. We speculated that the potential differences could include cetane number, purity, detergent or lubricating additives, bio content, etc. I wasn't confident enough of my French to ask an attendant.

ken2116
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Most of the answers are correct about diesel being synonymous with gazole, but most answers are wrong about the extra and supreme gazole. The supreme gazole has more/better cleaning additives. Here is what Esso has to say: What is our Esso Synergy Supreme+ Diesel fuel made of? Our Esso Synergy Supreme+ Diesel fuel is designed to clean diesel injectors more thoroughly than our Esso Synergy Diesel fuel, removing deposits, to help improve your engine's power and protect against corrosion. Tests on cars used daily show that Esso Synergy Supreme+ Diesel fuel reduces fuel consumption by an average of 1.8%, with savings of up to 2.8%.***

Peter
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    These claims are extremely dubious, and there are multiple trustworthy sources that proves that many of those claims are false AAA (full paper) except in edge cases – Nicolas Formichella Dec 21 '22 at 08:23
  • @NicolasFormichella Nope. You're citing a US gasoline paper written by a notorious motorist lobby. Diesel fuel is different. Premium/additivized diesel fuel is specifically recommended by carmakers because of properties like lubricity, cetane and pour point. Note that in many European countries, the lowest grade of gas is equivalent to US mid-grade/plus, a nationwide upgrade to premium is supported by US automakers. – user71659 Dec 21 '22 at 20:11