Cheap simplicity is the attraction - that is claimed by inventor Tony Miceli - ‘to be going encouragingly well’.
Named MagneCap, retailing at £3.99, the patented device is a self-adhesive magnetised metal disc that sticks permanently to a car’s fuel filler cap.
A similar disc with opposite polarity (other half of the magnet) is fixed to fronts of forecourt diesel fuel pumps.
So, when a driver removes a diesel fuel filler cap he/she places it magnet-to-magnet on the pump face. If the cap does not self-attach NO MAGNETISM MEANS – WRONG FUEL.
There is another MagneCap, with reversed polarity, to prevent misfuelling unleaded petrol cars with derv.
But that is questionably necessary because derv pump nozzles do not fit into unleaded car fuel filler pipes. Unleaded petrol nozzles are (worldwide) smaller than those of all other forecourt fuels.
At his business in Welwyn Garden City, Herts, MagneCap inventor Tony Miceli, 41, is being guided by the Petrol Retailers Association, a ‘limb’ of the Retail Motor Industry Federation. He claims to have received corporate interest from BT, Metropolitan Police, Avis, and the RAC.
Total’s full UK filling station network of around 840 outlets is planned to receive MagneCap ’without exclusivity’. ‘It is open to all oil companies to adopt, if they wish, because the aim is to get it on all derv pumps Europewide and even worldwide,’ says Mr Miceli. A BP station in Hertfordshire is reported to be fitting the magnets this week.
‘MagneCap distribution by Unipart also is not exclusive marketing,’ adds the inventor.
SPECIAL OFFER for FSG CLIENTS?
FSG Technical Director Julian Bailey-Watts says: ‘It is a simple solution that could save business a lot of money. FSG is investigating the merit of structuring a wholesale supply scheme for client fleets, and opt-out drivers, and if so when?
‘The immediate question, to which we do not know the answer, is: Which comes first, a magnetic disc on diesel pumps or one on diesel car filler caps?
‘Question-2 is: Are motor manufacturers and oil companies in, or set to enter, any dialogue to jointly accept and promote MagneCap as an actively recognised solution to the very widespread and costly phenomenon of diesel car misfuelling?’
Ford is preparing to introduce a new design of diesel car refuelling pipe that accepts only diesel pump nozzles. It is expected to be in diesel car production next year.