Money's not there for flex-fuel and other advanced technologies, automakers say
Here's the thing: American automakers used to fully support E85-capable (aka flex-fuel) vehicles. With a few cheap additions to a standard engine ($100, or thereabouts), a car could get a special badge, drink corn (where available) and get the automaker a bit of goodwill, especially from politicians. The Auto Alliance often went out of its way to proclaim all of the flex-fuel vehicles its members were selling (see this PDF).
Today, things are different. There is talk of introducing a bill in Congress that would force half of the new vehicles sold in the U.S. to be flex-fuel capable, starting in 2012 (jumping to 80 percent in 2015). Interestingly, it's not just gas ICE vehicles that would be affected. Diesel engines would need to be able to handle biodiesel, probably at higher concentrates than B5. Auto Alliance president Dave McCurdy wrote a letter to members of Congress last week to say that a mandate like this is a bad idea. Instead of the flex-fuel flood of vehicles of years past, McCurdy said that infrastructure should pace vehicle availability. "Mandates to produce vehicles for which there is inadequate fuels or fueling infrastructure should be opposed," he wrote.
McCurdy's other main point was that diverting limited automaker resources to making so many vehicles flex-fuel capable will divert resources from other advanced vehicle technologies. It's not easy to make cars, is it?
[Source: Green Car Advisor]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
gorr 1:43PM (5/26/2009)
I said and i repeat to use natural gas convertion instead of messing with polluting and costly corn ethanol even if it cost less and pollute less then gasoline/diesel/corn ethanol. I know that millions of oil employees and protecting politicians make tons of money selling crap fuel. As for the start-ups compagnies, they sucks as much as politicians and big oil and army and scientists employed by big compagnies or goverments. They could have offer natural gas conversions from long time ago and with some added performance too, lol, what they have done is ridicoulous. Any small speed-shops or mechanical shops of one employees or more can enter this market. The market is actually occupied only by gasoline at 100%, this technology is useless since peoples driven by me alone are seeking for something new.
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lne937s 1:51PM (5/26/2009)
I would pay an extra $50-$100 for flex fuel capable, although I would probably rarely if ever use it for E85. With all the ethanol already in gasoline, various levels of quality, additives, etc. the addition of a corrosion-resistant fuel system is a plus.
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kballs 2:09PM (5/26/2009)
I don't see why the manufacturers would complain... flex-fuel capability is the cheapest way for them to meet CAFE because of the way MPG is calculated for flex-fuel capable vehicles (they assume they will all burn E85 100% of the time, so they get an 85% boost in CAFE MPG numbers). Of course, when it comes to actually selling vehicles, only REAL boosts in MPG matter.
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mike 3:38PM (5/26/2009)
I swear, the auto industry has to be dragged, kicking and screaming into the future. Give it a rest.
All cars should be flexible in their fuel requirements. Duh! As long as we don't have a real alternative to gas, the oil cartel has us where they want us. Yes, it most likely will cost a little bit more at the start, but the alternative is worse. Say hello to $4.00 or more gas again.
Let’s try flex fuel, biodiesel, natural gas, hybrid, electric and any other choice that makes sense, to get rid of the gas monkey on our back. The best of the best will win in the end and the fuel industry will finally have the competition it needs to move forward.
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Steve-O 5:06PM (5/26/2009)
OMG I can't believe this. It truly costs so little to give car buyers a choice. These bleep holes hide behind the lame proclamation "fuel availability at pace with the vehicles" or whatever. Getting deep in here!
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Posterboy 1:13AM (5/27/2009)
Paging Carney... your article has arrived. =) In all seriousness, why would anyone NOT want their car to be flex-fuel capable... its not like it would force you to fill up with E85. You could keep using the same gas, so whats the issue? Even if you think that the current production of Ethanol is done in harmful ways, the future for ethanol looks more like production from waste products and/or "Switchgrass" (insert President Bush state of the union address quote here). There is always Methanol as well, which has its own set of advantages and disadvantages, but the point is that having a flex-fuel capable car is never going to be a disadvantage for a consumer. If their ever was some kind of major issue involving the petroleum supply (say a major war in the MIddle East, etc), every American consumer would be thankful that an alternative fuel existed which they could use. In my view, a flex-fuel mandate is a no brainer.... which is of course why it hasn't been done yet. Heck the car makers could switch over to all flex-fuel capable models next year if they wanted to... it's not like it involves any technological challenges. I'm all for electric cars for the future (or present, hurry the heck up!), but the fact is that Flex-Fuel/Ethanol has the potential to tide us over for awhile, the fact is that the majority of people will still be buying petroleum fueled autos for at least 5-10 years, lets give these folks the choice to use E85.
Biodiesel on the other hand, which I do support as well, seems to involve a few more of those technological challenges. I have no idea how much it would cost to make a system "biodiesel" capable. I know that lots of people use biodiesel in their rigs, but apparently there are reasons why no manufacturer will warranty a fuel system that uses anything above B5. I'm sure someone more informed than myself can take a swing at that one.
I do have a couple of Ethanol/Flex-fuel questions for someone in the know however...
1) Is it legal to convert an existing vehicle to flex-fuel or is that one of those "modifying the fuel system" no-nos?
2) I've seen internet kits to make such conversions, but are there reputable businesses that could convert a vehicle assuming it is legal?
3) Assuming it is legal, or failing that, if the law changed and it became legal, would it cost more to convert an existing vehicle to flex-fuel capable than the $100 to $150 that people are always throwing about when it comes to new cars being flex-fuel capable?
Thanks
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