GM has more than 1.5 million FlexFuel Vehicles on the road today in all 50

[JohnWxy]

states, and they don't cost anything extra!!. They can burn regular gas or any blend of ethanol and gasoline.

Flex Fuel Vehicles and Ethanol

and for NO EXTRA COST!

[Oerdin]

1. NPR had a great report on this a while back.

The big three got lots of very generous breaks to CAFE standards for producing flew fuel vehicles which look and run exactly like normal cars because they are normal cars with a few different seals and coatings in the engine. The problem is the credits given caused such a reduction in the real fuel economy that they allowed far, far, far more polluting SUVs and massive full sized cars to be sold. The end result of this FFV credit was that the US consumed more imported oil and not less especially since E85 isn't even sold in most states and the car's owners haven't a clue their cars could even run on E85.

[Nihil]

2. Ok, I have to ask ...

... are you on the GM payroll or just an unpaid shill for the US car corps?

You do nothing but rip (inaccurately) on hybrid cars whilst pretending to
defend (inaccurately) the "green" credentials of the gas hog builders.

If they are your employer, I can understand your position (though I still
don't agree with it) but if you are as "independent" as you've made out,
you really need to read some more objective information.

[Oerdin]

3. Of course

The knee jerk anti US car maker sentiment here is getting boring as well. Especially since most of it is just so wrong as to be ignorant. I especially love to continually read people here claim that there are no domestic hybrids when if fact they've been on sale for years. I know many posters don't let facts get in their way though.

Reguardless of the rules or the loop holes the domestics have put more FFV on the road then anyone else. I guess that is something though it would be nice to see more E85 stations so people could actually... you know... use those FFVs with something other then gasoline.

[Nihil]

4. I wasn't actually asking you but as you replied ...

... I agree that a few more E85 stations would be a useful step if
the FFV label is to be more than a cosmetic marketing ploy (from ANY
manufacturer for that matter).

If you think I am guilty of "knee jerk anti US car maker sentiment"
or that I claim "there are no domestic hybrids" please point it out
as (unless it was a particularly bad day) it would not have been
intended.

:-)

[JohnWxy]

8. This is why I urge people to go to

Congress.org and email their legislators (state and federal) and tell them we need to push ethanol fuel availability. IF it was more available I think the demand for it would explode (no pun intended). Then you would see production go up. The trouble is the oil companies don't want to promote it. They see it as a competitor. Even thought they will have more than enough demand for their product even with ethanol becoming available.

BArak Obama has requested GAO to look into possiblity that Oil companies have been restricting availability of ethanol. (NO!!)

Public policy driven by corporations often leads to disaster.

[phantom power]

5. I'm having another wacky idea.

Build a hybrid that uses an FFV engine. If I use hybrid technology so that I can burn 1/2 of the E85, then that's 1/2 the land we need to grow our alcohol. 1/2 the engergy used to ferment, distill, and ship it. Etc.

[Dead_Parrot]

6. Any car can be made a hybrid...

Regenerative braking is a technology that can be slapped on any power source (I recall the Morgan Lifecar - if it's still in development - will be hydrogen fueled, with reg. braking tied to monster capacitors. Very nice). Not building an ethanol hybrid would be dumb...

[JohnWxy]

7. I agree, combine the technologies! Use every technique we can think of!