While the trend is in no way isolated to Estonia, some owners of vehicles powered by older and therefore simpler diesel engines have turned to vegetable oil instead of diesel fuel, as the former can be had for less than €1 per liter, while the latter costs in excess of €2 per liter, Delfi Ärileht reports.

Karlo, who sometimes uses ordinary cooking oil to power his 1997 Volkswagen Transporter van, said that it only works for older engines and even those still need a splash of diesel in the mix, as a tank full of nothing but cooking oil makes cold starting difficult.

This season, Karlo has done 2,000 kilometers on cooking oil alone and says he's experienced "zero problems."

While vegetable cooking oil can be had for as little as €0,99 per liter in Estonian stores, it's available for even less over the border in Latvia, which is not far for Karlo.

He added that in addition to savings per kilometer travel, using cooking oil also transforms the nasty smell of diesel. "It's like driving in a bakery," he remarked.

Mariann Järvela, head of communications for the Selver chain of supermarkets, said that while sales of Selver's refined cooking oil have grown noticeably lately, the company cannot say what customers are doing with it.

Excise duty still due

However, Peeter-Tanel Orro, chief specialists at the Tax and Customs Board's excise taxes department, said that fossil diesel or not, any liquid used as motor fuel or its additive is subject to tax.

"This means that if rapeseed oil or any other edible oil is used as fuel in a vehicle — whether in pure form or mixed with diesel fuel — excise duty must be paid on it at the rate applicable to diesel," Orro said. He added that the obligation to declare and pay the excise duty rests with any person who uses such a liquid as fuel.

That said, to his knowledge, the Tax and Customs Board has not recently identified any cases in which edible oil has been used as fuel.

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