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flex-fuel


Not Done Yet: Hummer H3, H3T get biofuel capability, new colors for 2010

Can a Hummer be green? The brand that most obviously represents American excess in the minds of environmentalists – though Hummer's vehicles aren't actually any worse than any other large SUV – has seemingly been fighting off its negative stigma since shortly after the introduction of the larger-than-life H2. Part of the brand's hopeful transformation includes giving each model a flex-fuel variant, and the latest application of that principle is seen on the 2010 H3 and H3T. Interestingly, the engine that gets the E85 ... Read more →

VIDEO: Argonne National Lab developing Omnivorous Engine Jeremy Korzeniewski

Gasoline, ethanol, methanol, butanol, natural gas... there are a ton of choices when deciding on what fuel is best suited for automotive use, and each of them offer at least some reason to ...

Ethanol will get you free parking at Vikings games, sort of Sebastian Blanco

Here's the problem with flex-fuel vehicles. Also known at E85-capable, flexfuel rides can burn straight gasoline or a gasoline/ethanol blend that is up to 85 percent ethanol. But, since they don't ...

REPORT: Bentley to delay flex-fuel capability for 2010 Continental Supersports Jeremy Korzeniewski

While the environmental merits of any 621 horsepower, twelve-cylinder behemoth that's capable of traveling at speeds of up to 204 miles per hour are, at the very least, debatable, Bentley hasn't ...

Top Ten "green" cars that met their fate during Cash for Clunkers Sebastian Blanco

One rule that all clunked cars needed to adhere to was a maximum rating of 18 MPG from the federal government, right? What wasn't required was that the clunked car be considered dirty. After all, ...

Honda starts building flex-fuel City sedan in Brazil 3 months ago on Autoblog Green

Here in North America, the only non-gasoline fueled cars offered by Honda are the natural gas-powered Civic GX and the hydrogen-fueled FCX Clarity. You can buy diesel-powered Hondas in Europe and, in Brazil, ethanol is the preferred alternative. Honda Automoveis do Brasil Ltda has just launched ...

EPA wants to hear your thoughts on E15 6 months ago on Autoblog Green

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a call today that asks for comments on what would happen if E15 became common in the national gasoline supply. In early March, Growth Energy and 54 ethanol manufacturers submitted an application for a waiver that would allow them to increase the blend ...

Geneva Preview: Bentley Continental Supersports, 621 hp ethanol beast 8 months ago on Autoblog Green

In spite of being part of the Volkswagen Group, Bentley has opted to not go the diesel route in its efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Instead, the Continental Supersports becomes the most powerful Bentley ever through the use of E85 as a fuel. Bentley has added flex fuel capability to ...

Indiana police department abandons E85 test for cost reasons 10 months ago on Autoblog Green

In spite of all the promotion from General Motors of E85 as an alternative fuel, the reality for most people has been that is simply doesn't make sense from an economic perspective. As the West Lafayette, Indiana police department found out last summer, the numbers didn't add up. There is of course ...

Tundra 5.7L V8 gets flex-fuel option for '09 11 months ago on Autoblog Green

Toyota has announced updated pricing information for the 2009 Tundra full-size truck, along with a few new options that weren't available before. Chief among these new features is flex-fuel capability on the largest, most powerful 5.7L engine option. Toyota has been planning on adding this ...

Yamaha patents flex-fuel motorcycle 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/autos/Yamaha_patents_flex_fuel_motorcycle'; Flex-fuel automobiles are nothing new. In fact, there are over 7-million flexible-fuel vehicles already on the roads in America, and it's not at all uncommon to see gas stations that offer E85. All vehicles sold in the ...

Roush Technologies converts Ford Transit van to hydrogen flex-fuel 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Roush Technologies has been working on flexible fuel vehicles for the last few years. Unlike most manufacturers, which seem to be focusing on using either ethanol or gasoline in their flex-fuel vehicles, Roush Technologies has been integrating compressed hydrogen power into normal internal ...

Climax Supercar: a new British sportscar that runs on ethanol 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Ethanol has proven itself a viable fuel for tuners that want to get the most power from their automobiles. The alcohol has a higher octane rating that gasoline, meaning that an engine tuned to run on ethanol can make higher horsepower without the risk of detonation. This fact has prompted some ...

Minnesota state fleet using 77 percent more E85 this year 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

The Minnesota SmartFleet Committee took a look at the amount of E85 used thus far in 2008 and found that the biofuel mixture's use is way up compared to 2007. In the first nine months of 2008, the state fleet of about 1,700 flexfuel vehicles has burned 529,000 gallons of E85; in the same time ...

ABC Extreme Makeover winner gets flexfuel F-150 and a year's supply of E85 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

I wonder just how much money and time has been spent by national organizations promoting flexfuel vehicles - even though we all know that E85 fuel is pretty hard to find. Whatever the calculation, we need to add in the cost of a new F150 crew cab flexible-fuel vehicle (around $36,000) and a year's ...

Find more ethanol with DriveFlexFuel E85 station locator 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

One of the problems major automakers cite as a reason that more ethanol isn't used in their flex-fuel vehicles is that the people who own the cars just don't know that you can put E85 into the tank. But there is another problem: not having any E85 available in your area. If you want to find out if ...

Some politicians want to mandate 100% flex fuel capability 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

A bipartisan group of senators has drafted a new energy bill that includes a mandate that all vehicles sold in the United States would have to be flex-fuel capable by 2020. During the GM BioFuels summit last Friday in Detroit, one of the subjects that came up was the use of flex-fuel vs. dedicated ...

Bentley buyers say "no" to diesels 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Despite the fact that a diesel Bentley makes perfect sense, the German-owned British automaker won't be cribbing any oil-burners from the VW parts catalog. According to the company, its customers just aren't interested in the massive bottom-end torque that a big diesel engine would bring to the ...

Suzuki to introduce E100-capable flex-fuel models in 2010 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

So far, Suzuki has steered clear of alternative fuel vehicles in the American market. They haven't offered any diesels, flex-fuel or hybrid vehicles yet. That may soon change as the company will reportedly launch some vehicles that can run on not just E85, but also E100 as soon as 2010. The ...

Obama: 1 million plug-in hybrid vehicles by 2015 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has proposed a new ten-year $150 billion energy plan today in Michigan. A large part of the plan centers around transportation -- both the use of petroleum and the types of cars we are to drive in the future. For automakers, $4 billion in loans and loan ...

Gas prices causing drivers to blend their own ethanol 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Because certain subsidies and incentives allow many gas stations to sell ethanol for less money than regular gasoline, the fuel is becoming a popular choice among motorists, even if their vehicles are not certified for flex-fuel use. All vehicles sold in the U.S. today are capable of accepting ...

Ethanol promoters attack Big Oil, OPEC in Nashville 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Oh, the poor ethanol industry figures. Maligned for their reliance on corn, blamed for rising food prices and having to resort to subsidized fuel sales to attract attention, ethanol is an easy target these days.. Ethanol can't even get any love from the chickens. Last week, ethanol promoters ...

Toyota peers into E85 in Thailand 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Although Toyota is the undisputed leader in hybrid sales, it has shied away from offering E85-capable vehicles in the United States. In other markets, though, where ethanol is widely available and popular, such as Brazil, Toyota has seen fit to offer vehicles which are able to run on the alcohol ...

Xcelplus will convert 450 vehicles to flexfuel for the U.S. Air Force 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

The U.S. Air Force is trying to make its ground vehicles a little less petroleum fuel-hungry. It has advanced li-ion battery contracts out and funded the Silverado EV. The company Xcelplus International Inc. announced this week that it and MAG International Inc. will be providing the Air Force with ...

J.D. Power predicting that diesels and hybrids to grab 17% by 2015 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

A new study by J.D. Power and associates is projecting that the combined market share of diesel and hybrid power-trains will hit seventeen percent in the U.S. by the middle of the next decade. The analysis also projects that smaller displacement four cylinder and flex-fuel engines will take a much ...

Geneva 2008: Ford outlines sustainability strategy 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Click to enlarge Ahead of the Geneva Motor Show next month, Ford has further elaborated on its sustainable mobility plans. Just as Ford execs like Derrik Kuzak have described here in the U.S. recently, Ford's European plan includes cost-effective solutions. With the intent to get large numbers of ...

Chicago Auto Show 2008 videos: GMC Denali XT concept 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

The GMC Denali XT concept debuts at the 2008 Chicago Auto Show this week. The flex-fuel, two-mode hybrid pickup truck reminds me a lot of Toyota's A-BAT hybrid pickup concept. The Denali XT has a more coupe-ish look and feel than Toyota's A-BAT. As you can see in the video above, GMC uses the paint ...

Lutz in tune with U.S. car buyers; sees flexfuel as more valuable than diesel 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

As I wrote earlier today, new car buyers in the U.S. are more in favor of hybrids than diesels - by a huge margin. Over at The Car Connection, we find some comments by GM's vice chairman Bob Lutz that are in alignment with the KBB study. Lutz's view is that diesels won't appeal to American buyers. ...

DC Auto Show: Ford expands flex-fuel to Navigator, Expedition, E-Vans 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

For the 2009 model year, Ford is expanding flex-fuel capability on their big trucks. The humongous Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs and the E-Series vans will all be capable of running E85 through the 5.4L V-8. Ford has already offered the same flex-fuel capability on the F-150 pickups for ...

Cool videos of Mazda's Furai, the ethanol-fueled racing car concept 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

The first video below the fold is Mazda's Director of Design, Franz von Holzhausen talking about the Furai concept at the Detroit Auto Show. The Furai is a racing concept that runs on E100 (100 percent ethanol) and the car's design is inspired by the wind. The video includes a look at a really cool ...

Wagoner: Our nation has a "woefully low number of E-85 pumps" 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

There are already millions of flex-fuel vehicles on the road today, and manufacturers like General Motors have committed to building many, many more. In fact, GM has plans for half of their entire fleet of automotive offerings to be flex-fuel capable by the year 2012. According to Jim Wagoner, GM's ...

"Primarily flexible-fuel and hybrid" vehicles will make up GM's official Republican National Convention fleet 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

While there is certainly a large number of GOPers who don't want to give the idea of climate change the time of day, the national security wing of the Party is most likely very much in favor of reducing the amount of oil imports. Therefore, it makes some sense that when GM was named to be the ...

MotorWeek video: E85 conversions are impractical 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

In a recent episode of MotorWeek, as you can in the video above, Pat Goss lays out the reasons why flex-fuel conversion kits are "impractical." Using parts supplied by GM, Pat lists the things in a regular gas engine that just won't work with ethanol. The parts that must be changed to convert a gas ...

Video of E85 Corvette Z06, 2008 Indy 500 pace car 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Who said muscle cars can't be green? The video above is all about the 2008 Indy 500 pace car, an E85-fueled Corvette Z06. Chevy does not make an E85 Corvette but this concept may hint at future plans from Chevy's gas friendly to gas free strategy. The video includes the pace car driver, two-time ...

Khosla: plug-ins are "toys," batteries "immaterial" 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Vinod Khosla has challenged conventional ideas on the cost of ethanol and then walked the walked by investing in America's first cellulosic ethanol plant. What does Vinod think about plug-in cars and battery technology? According to Greentech Media, during a keynote at a ThinkEquity conference, ...

EXCLUSIVE: Does president Bush know how many flex-fuel cars are on the road? 1 year ago on Autoblog Green

Recent statements by President Bush about the number of flex-fuel vehicles seem to show a lack of understanding of the market. His mistake could have real policy implications. Lets start with what Bush said and facts about flex-fuel vehicles. In a December 17 press conference, which you can ...

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