The seven million or so Flex Fuel Vehicles are just a small portion of the 200-million or so vehicles in the American fleet, but there could many, more in the future. (Photo by Shawn Allee)
For most drivers, filling up at the
pump’s a pretty easy operation – you drive
up, you fill up, and you drive out. But people
who have Flex Fuel Vehicles have another choice.
They can fill up on gas or E-85, that 85 percent
ethanol blend – if they find the right station.
Shawn Allee reports a lot more of us
could have to make that same choice in the future:
Transcript
For most drivers, filling up at the
pump’s a pretty easy operation – you drive
up, you fill up, and you drive out. But people
who have Flex Fuel Vehicles have another choice.
They can fill up on gas or E-85, that 85 percent
ethanol blend – if they find the right station.
Shawn Allee reports a lot more of us
could have to make that same choice in the future:
I’m at a car lot in my home town. I’m not actually in the car market, but I am
curious what these E85 compatible Flex Fuel vehicles look like. I don’t own one
myself.
Anyway, I’m here with Edgar Moreno. He sells cars on this lot. He’s gonna show
me one of these vehicles here.
Allee: “Edgar, what can you show me?”
Moreno: “The Chevy Impala.”
Allee: “I actually don’t see anything that would tell me it’s a Flex-fuel vehicle.”
Moreno: “Usually it says on the gas cap whether you can use E85 or not.”
(sound of twist)
Allee: “It’s bright yellow. It says E85. In fact it says E85-slash-gasoline. What does
that mean?”
Moreno: “You can fill it with either, or.”
Allee: “How many stations are there available where I could fill this Impala up with
E85?”
Moreno: “I think there’s one in the area, but you have to drive quite a bit to get
there.”
Allee: “So, it’s one of those situations where, if I take this Impala off the lot, I could
still use it at a regular gas station, but I might have to search around for an E85
station?”
Moreno: “Yes, you do. Yep.”
Congress and both presidential candidates are considering making every car a Flex
Fuel Vehicle.
Detroit has spent a lot of money promoting E85 vehicles, and you might think they’d
be in favor of this.
Well, I called Ford Motor Company about this and found out that’s not the case.
“You could mandate every vehicle on the road to be a flex fuel vehicle. It would be a
great cost to our industry.”
Curt Magleby is Ford’s point-man on ethanol regulations.
He says if Congress gets its way there’d be more Flex Fuel Vehicles, but not necessarily
more E85 pumps.
“So you can mandate the vehicle side, but unless there’s a real focus on distribution,
it’s wasted money – we’d be putting dollars on the hoods of our vehicles for no
reason.”
So, Ford and the other car makers could make less profit on Flex Fuel Vehicles if there’s
a mandate.
At one time, they got government incentives to build Flex Fuel Vehicles, but those will
phase out.
So there’d be no benefit for the automakers.
And there’s another twist in the E-85 story.
The fuel industry is pushing to distribute ethanol in a way that might not require flex fuel
cars at all.
This is a little technical, but most gas already has 10% ethanol in it.
The fuel industry wants to sell 20% or even 30% ethanol blends because it saves oil
companies money. The government subsidized ethanol is cheaper than refining oil for
gasoline.
Ford and other car-makers are fighting this.
Magleby says burning E-20 or E-30 blends would be a disaster for existing cars.
“Ethanol is corrosive and it burns hotter, so you have to have a different fuel tank.
You have to have stainless steel fuel lines. You have to have hardened valves in your
engine.”
Car companies say burning 20% or 30% ethanol blends could hurt existing cars.
Scientists are checking whether that’s the case.
In the meantime, Congress is deciding exactly how it will promote ethanol.
It could mandate all cars be E85 Flex Fuel vehicles or it could promote lower-level
ethanol blends in gasoline.
Either way, over the next few years, we’re going to see big changes in our cars or our gas
pumps.
For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.