? about Hybrids and the fuel Ethanol.?
Does anyone work with hybrids or read more than I do about them, which wouldnt be hard since I cant read…. Anyways, I have been paying a little attention to this new fuel being sold E85, which is made from Ethanol. Are hybrids able to run off of E85? I know that E85 currently gives less MPG then regular Gasoline, but with a vehicle that produces more than 50 MPG, I dont think it will make that big of a deal to loose 5 or so MPG, when It can save around $4 to $6 dollars on every fill up. Does anyone currently drive this combination or read more than I do……..lol, sorry, I had to laugh at that……..and know if E85 will work with any Hybrid on the market today, or in the near future?
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Filed under Gas Conservation FAQ by on Nov 8th, 2010. Comment. 
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Comments on ? about Hybrids and the fuel Ethanol.?
Typically no, however, some of the hybrid concept cars run on e85 and it eventually it will probably make its way to the production line.
Speaking of which.. saving $6 a fillup would be great with my current car, however, I am not so sure that I will get my money back on a vehicle that costs $35,000 more than a comparable non-hybrid.
I don’t think any current hybrids run on E85.
But E85 isn’t all that it’s touted to be. One gallon of pure ethanol only provides 70% of the BTU output that a gallon of gas has. So E85 would provide about 82% of the mileage of a gallon of regular unleaded gas, but I don’t believe that E85 is 18% cheaper than gas.
You might be able to run a hybrid with up to 15% ethanol – in fact your regular gas probably has that much today.
Ethanol production is heavily subsidized in the US (~ 50 cents/gallon. Furthermore US corn farmers and ethanol producers are protected from imports, (eg, ethanol from Brazil, which makes a bazillion gallons each year from sugar cane.) If those subsidies are removed, there won’t be incentives to produce it in the US, supply will decrease and the price will rise.
Define “E85 will work with any hybrid on the market today”…
Yes, you can put E85 in most any gasoline vehicle. (E85 = 85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) Unless the vehicle is specifically built for it (“flex-fuel”), you’ll probably see lowered fuel economy, some check engine lights (different air/fuel ratio needed than expected, poor emissions at cold startup), higher emissions at startup. If you use it for a long time in a non flex-fuel vehicle, you could damage parts of the fuel system, as ethanol can break down some parts…
Most vehicles on the road can handle E10 or E15 pretty well. There are some states that are currently switching over to E10. (E10 = 10% ethanol, 90% gasoline). The ethanol is an oxygenate, which helps the gasoline to burn cleaner (less emissions), and is less harmful than the alternative MTBE. Those in states that are just switching over now and keep track of their fuel economy from tank to tank are often complaining about how their fuel economy/range per tank has gone down with the new fuel…
Ford has announced a version of the Ford Escape Hybrid SUV to be available as a flex-fuel vehicle, but it isn’t available for sale yet.
http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=22474
One of the problems with the flex-fuel vehicles is that so few of them actually run E85. There are very few filling stations available in the US. (No E85 stations yet in New England, for example, yet many municipal governments are *required* to purchase them as alternative fueled vehicles…) And the manufacturers are given a few MPG credit towards their CAFE numbers for each E85 vehicle in their fleet…
I won’t even get into the question about the efficiency (how much petroleum is needed to make the ethanol, in comparison to the petroleum it is replacing and fuel economy hit) nor the logistics of how to grow enough of it…