flex fuel

There are drawbacks to every kind of alternative to burning fossil fuels in our cars. Electric cars don't have enough range. Hybrids are burdened with what essentially boils down to two parallel powertrains. Hydrogen is limited to where it is available. Bio-ethanol has its own drawbacks, but ...

"This technology-neutral Open Fuel Standard is a key step to break the cycle of pain at the pump," says Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD). Bartlett, along with a bipartisan group of House members led by Congressmen John Shimkus (R-IL), and including Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Steve Israel (D-NY), ...

Last Friday, the Obama administration announced that it will offer incentives to gasoline stations that install E85 (a fuel consisting of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline) pumps as part of the government's effort to boost the use of biofuels. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said that ...

Lawmakers and car manufacturers often find themselves on opposite ends of debates, and a proposed mandate to make most vehicles E85 capable only proves that point. The Detroit News reports that Senator Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has sponsored a bill that would force automakers to make 90 percent of ...

You've probably noticed that a growing numbers of vehicles are labeled with a Flex Fuel badge, indicating that the car or truck is capable of burning E85 – a blend of 85-percent ethanol and 15-percent gasoline. Even without that badge, today's vehicles have no problem running on E10 – ...

In May of 2010, General Motors announced that all 2011 Buick Regals, including the Turbo model, would offer flex-fuel capability. Now, The General wants potential buyers to know that the Buick Regal Turbo, with its ...

The latest version of the Kia Soul, unveiled just days ago in Brazil, adds even more flexibility to the mix. Appropriately called the Soul Flex, this vehicle's ability to run on any ethanol-gasoline mixture, be it 100 percent gasoline or straight ethanol, is its main draw. Kia claims that the ...

In a post on GM's FastLane Blog, technical fellow Candace Wheeler sums up The General's thoughts in these post-Gulf oil spill times this way:

It could be argued that flex-fuel vehicles are simply a product of government subsidies and the automotive industry's self-conjured up image of environmental saviors. What does this mean? Well, vehicles capable of running E85 receive CAFE credits that help automakers offset some of their less ...

Turn back the clock to 2006, when Ford Motor Company announced it was taking flex-fuel vehicles seriously. That year, the company built 185,000 autos that could run on gasoline, ethanol or any combination of the two up to E85 (85 percent ethanol). Ford also pledged that the company's production of ...