HVO in Spain: can you use renewable diesel in a hire car?

Spanish forecourts have been adding a second black nozzle. The sign above it reads diésel renovable - renewable diesel - or HVO100, or a brand name: Moeve sells HVO 100, Repsol a 100 % renewable-origin diesel under its Nexa brand. It is priced by the litre and goes into the same filler as diesel. If you have driven into Spain or picked up a car at the airport, the question is whether your vehicle is approved for it.

Repsol - renewable fuels: the Nexa 100 % renewable-origin diesel, made from waste and used cooking oils

The Spanish words on the sign

Gasóleo means gasoil, and it is the trap: it reads like petrol to an English eye and it is not. Class A is the road grade - Real Decreto 61/2006 fixes it at a minimum cetane number of 51,0 and at most 7 % FAME by volume, which is what B7 on the pump means. Class B is dyed and reserved for machinery.

Real Decreto 61/2006: gasoil classes A, B and C, cetane number and the 7 % FAME cap (BOE)

What is actually in the tank

HVO stands for hydrotreated vegetable oil. Oils, fats and residues are treated with hydrogen until what is left is a paraffinic hydrocarbon rather than the ester that makes up conventional biodiesel. Moeve describes its HVO 100 as a second-generation biofuel from the hydrotreatment of residual feedstock and animal fats, which it says cuts CO2 by up to 90 % over the whole life cycle.

Moeve - HVO 100 renewable diesel: what it is and the life-cycle CO2 claim

Producers are direct about the consequence. Neste states that, as a pure hydrocarbon chemically similar to fossil diesel, its renewable diesel can be used in any diesel engine without modifications, neat or blended at any ratio.

Neste - a pure hydrocarbon, usable neat or blended at any ratio

Those are fuel producers speaking about their own fuel. They are not your vehicle's manufacturer, and they are not your rental contract.

The label on the flap is the answer, not the label on the pump

Since 2018 forecourts across the EU use the same graphical identifiers, and so do new vehicles. The shape gives the family: a circle for petrol, a square for diesel, a diamond for gaseous fuels. Inside the square, the ordinary diesel pump reads B7 and the renewable one XTL.

Revista Tráfico (DGT): label shapes, and placement on filler caps, pumps and manuals

XTL is not a brand. According to CEN, it is the identifier for paraffinic diesel-type fuels, which may originate from synthesis or hydrotreatment processes and whose quality is described in EN 15940.

CEN-CENELEC - European fuel labels: XTL and EN 15940

The same identifiers appear on the vehicle, and that is the half that concerns you. Article 7 of Real Decreto 639/2016 makes EN 16942 the reference for fuels other than electricity and states that "sus requisitos serán de aplicación a los puntos de repostaje y a todos los vehículos a motor matriculados a partir del 12 de octubre de 2018" - refuelling points, and every motor vehicle registered from 12 October 2018.

Real Decreto 639/2016, article 7 (BOE)

The duty began as Article 7 of Directive 2014/94/EU, which required the information to be available "in motor vehicle manuals, at refuelling and recharging points, on motor vehicles and in motor vehicle dealerships". That directive was repealed on 13 April 2024 by Regulation (EU) 2023/1804, whose Article 20 now carries user information.

Directive 2014/94/EU, Article 7 (EUR-Lex) Regulation (EU) 2023/1804: Article 51 repeal, Article 20 user information (EUR-Lex)

The check at the pump takes ten seconds:

• Open the filler flap. If it shows XTL as well as B7, the manufacturer has declared the vehicle compatible with paraffinic diesel and the XTL pump is for you.
• If it shows only B7, no such declaration has been made. Do not fill. Check with the manufacturer.

Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/2383: manufacturer declarations for paraffinic fuel (EUR-Lex)

We do not publish a list of approved models: approvals differ by engine, model year and market, and they change.

If your car is older than the label

A car first registered before 12 October 2018 may have nothing on the filler flap, because the Real Decreto 639/2016 requirement bites from that date onwards. The absence of an XTL label on a 2012 estate tells you nothing.

Nor should you reason your way to a yes. EN 15940 applies to fuels intended for use by diesel engines and by vehicles compatible with paraffinic diesel, and its first note warns that the fuel may require a validation stage to confirm compatibility with the vehicle - a stage that, in its own words, may still have to be completed for certain existing engines.

EN 15940: scope, cetane classes and the vehicle-compatibility validation note

The standard does not promise that every diesel engine will take it. For an older car with no label, the answer comes from the handbook or the manufacturer, not from the forecourt.

Hire cars: ask the desk, not the forecourt

With a rental there are two locks and you need both open. The first is technical: does the flap show XTL. The second is contractual, and only the rental company can answer it - the agreement you signed sets what may go in the tank and who pays if the wrong thing does.

We cannot verify any company's fuel policy, so ask at the desk before you drive off and get the answer in writing. "The car has an XTL sticker" is an argument to put to them, not a substitute for their answer. The same goes for a leased vehicle and a hired motorhome.

What XTL does not tell you

Two caveats before you read green credentials into the pump. The label is about chemistry, not origin: CEN's definition covers paraffinic diesel from synthesis as well as from hydrotreatment, so the same three letters can stand above fuel made from natural gas and fuel made from used cooking oil. And EN 15940's own scope allows up to 7,0 % by volume of FAME and defines two cetane classes, so XTL is not a guarantee of a biodiesel-free product.

How much of Spain sells it

The Spanish government publishes the price of every product at every filling station, and diésel renovable has its own column in that feed. It is what the figures below count.

Geoportal de Gasolineras (Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico) Public REST service for Spanish fuel prices

Right now the feed lists 1,618 stations selling renewable diesel, across 50 provinces, 918 municipalities and 54 brands. Ordinary gasóleo A is sold at 11,216 stations. Last update: 19 Oct 2026, 04:30.

The curve is the practical point: the network is growing, but it is a fraction of the diesel network and unevenly spread. Plan the route rather than assume the next station sells it.

Province medians, minimums and counts are on Renewable diesel (HVO); the stations are on Renewable diesel (HVO).

What it costs against ordinary diesel

Renewable diesel normally sells at a premium over gasóleo A. The current national medians:

The difference today is +0.160 €/l; what that means over a holiday depends on your consumption:

For a whole-trip budget, Fuel prices: Spain vs France vs Portugal compares the three countries you are most likely to cross.

Paying at the pump

Do not assume there will be anyone on the forecourt. Spanish rules define an instalación desatendida as one working "sin que exista personal de la instalación que ejercite control o supervisión directa del suministro, ya sea durante todo el día o solo parte del horario", with payment terminals taking notes, bank cards or another electronic identification system. Note o solo parte del horario: one station can be staffed at noon and unattended at midnight, so carry a card that works abroad.

Real Decreto 706/2017, ITC MI-IP 04: unattended installations, payment terminals and signage (BOE)

For how Spanish pump labels and prices work in general, see Fuel prices in Spain today and what the pump labels mean; a modern diesel will want AdBlue in Spain: where to buy it at the pump and what it costs too.