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The "Fuel Guide": a tool to help you choose your car

Despite the development of public transport and soft mobility, some situations require using a car. But which car to choose? It's not easy to find your way through all the possibilities: hydrogen, petrol, diesel, hybrid, electric, etc.

To help you make up your mind WeLOOP, an expert in Comparative LCA, and DATS 24, the fuel specialist of the Colruyt Group, proposent un outil d’aide de prise à la décision baptisé « Guide du Carburant ». Cet outil a pour but d’aiguiller les citoyens dans le choix d’un véhicule plus durable en fonction de leurs besoins au quotidien et de leur budget.

Fuel Guide: the tool for choosing your vehicle


What type of engine should you choose for your next vehicle? The Fuel Guide helps you choose the fuel that's right for you..

Page d’accueil (FR) de l’outil Guide du Carburant

The term " fuel " refers to all the products offered by DATS 24 for vehicles (diesel, petrol, CNG, 100% green electricity at charging stations and hydrogen). The calculations in this guide are based on the four main aspects that determine the choice of a new car or motorisation (fuel):

  • L’écologie : Quel est l’impact environnemental d’un carburant, notamment en fonction de la zone de conduite (rural ou urbain) ?
  • L’économie : What is your budget? What are the total costs, considering the purchase, taxes specific to the Belgian regions: Wallonia/Flanders, maintenance, fuel?
  • Proximity : What fuels (available at DATS 24 stations) do you have nearby?
  • Convenience : To what extent does the fuel type involve a change in your habits?

The Fuel Guide helps the user base their choice on criteria that include economic and environmental assessments of the different fuel types. The environmental assessment is calculated from a verified Life Cycle Assessment.

Different EF 3.0 indicators (method recommended by the European Commission) are used to make the first environmental assessment. For the economic part, the life cycle cost is taken into consideration. For the moment , fuel and car prices , are those of November 2022. The final score of the vehicle is obtained based on a mix of environmental and economic aspects of the Life Cycle.

Fuel Guide: How does it work? 


The Fuel Guide was born out of publicly available information from experts and users, data from car manufacturers and logical assumptions. Thus DATS 24 and WeLOOP have jointly developed a calculation method. The aim is to provide a benchmark when choosing the type of fuel for the next vehicle. This approach is based not only on fuel and price expertise (DATS 24) but also on sustainability and circularity (WeLOOP).

This digital guide, therefore , offers different car technologies, including electric, hydrogen, CNG, hybrid, plug-in hybrid (3 different electric driving intensities) and conventional solutions.

A decision matrix selects the right solution for the user's needs. It considers driving conditions, car size, distance, budget, electric vehicle range, availability of fuel and charging station, and the number of trips made daily.

In particular, the environmental impact is calculated according to the area in which the car is used : si la voiture est utilisée en milieu urbain avec une qualité de l’air dégradée, l’impact des particules fines sera augmenté afin de refléter au mieux la réalité. En fonction du code postal, l’impact environnemental est séparé en rural/urbain. Par exemple, si le code postal indiqué fait partie de la liste des villes « fortement polluées » (métriques issues de IQAir), on considère l’impact comme urbain.

A survey is presented to identify the needs according to the above criteria. The fuel types are given a score for each of these four aspects based on the answers given in the fuel guide. The user is then presented with the results of the three fuel types that best meet their needs and wishes.

results format

Fuel Guide: Tool updated 


A first version of the Fuel Guide was proposed for the Belgian market to collect user feedback. Thanks to much valuable feedback, the guide was updated in December 2022. The calculations are now more accurate thanks to the new updates:

  • The Belgian electricity mix as a basis for electric driving
  • Updated recycling of electric car batteries
  • Updated CNG consumption
  • Période d’utilisation actualisée pour les voitures (250 000 km)

Work is also underway to offer the tool to other markets. This future version under development focuses only on environmental aspects and is more technical and detailed.

Updated Fuel Guide : Fuelguide.be