General Motors Leads the Way with E85

[Stéphane Dumas]

I'm subscribed to the E85 fuel newsletter and I received the last newsletter about E85 and GM then I taught to share

General Motors Corporation, one of the top three automotive manufacturers in North America, has recently announced plans that will easily distinguish their E85 compatible vehicles from their regular gasoline powered vehicles. In about 400,000 of their new flexible-fuel vehicles (FFV), GM will replace their original gas caps with ones that are colored yellow.

“We applaud General Motors’ continued commitment to bring more awareness to their flexible-fuel vehicle line,” said Curtis Donaldson, Chairman of the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition. “GM has made this a very important and large step to further consumer education.”

At this time, there is no universal labeling that is used for the almost 5 million FFVs on American roads. It is difficult to determine a vehicle’s compatibility with E85. GM’s new fuel cap will alert a driver if their vehicle is compatible.

GM is also considering a large marketing strategy that will help promote FFVs and E85. These plans include placing educational newspaper ads and distributing mailings to flexible-fuel vehicle owners informing them of their vehicle’s fuel capability and their closest E85 fueling site. There are now about 480 public E85 fueling sites in the U.S.

There are currently about 1.5 million GM model flexible-fuel vehicles. GM's model year 2006 line include the 3.5 liter Impala and Monte Carlo; and the 5.3 liter Avalanche, Tahoe, Silverado, Sierra, Suburban, Tahoe, Yukon and Yukon XL.

A complete listing of all E85 compatible vehicles and fueling locations can be found at www.E85Fuel.com.

[silverado_13]

This may be a dumb question but could someone explain to me what E85 is.

[russtrapp]

85% Ethanol, 15% Gasoline. The gas you buy normally is about 0 to 10% Ethanol.

[silverado_13]

Wow. Thats impressive. What are the advantages and disadvantages to this.

[plane]

At this time, there is no universal labeling that is used for the almost 5 million FFVs on American roads. It is difficult to determine a vehicle’s compatibility with E85. GM’s new fuel cap will alert a driver if their vehicle is compatible.

What happens if you change out the gas cap? Maybe a few words on the spec plate under the hood might not be a bad idea?

[goblue]

Actually, Saab leads the way in E85. The Biopower engine uses a turbo (big surprise) to get equal or better gas mileage and more power running E85 vs running gas. Most engines lose power and mileage on E85. Saab fixed it by realizing E85 is effectively 104 octane - by using a turbo with high boost.

This tech should be standard equipment on all Saabs. I just don't see a downside. For those of us that live near an E85 pump, we'd be saving money right now.

[paul3230]

Who cares?? I mean seriously, GM isn't getting the press over this and GM isn't advertising it. I mean it's great that GM is doing it, but hey, let's get this thing out there so the public awareness

[Randle2I]

Originally Posted by paul3230

I mean it's great that GM is doing it, but hey, let's get this thing out there so the public awareness

QFMFT

[zaxxis]

If all they are doing is putting on a yellow cap, then this a stupid idea. If they put on a yellow cap that has nice big writing that states "I'm E85 ready!" then it will make much more sense.

Coloring it yellow [and only going that far] is stupid because it offers no immediate connection to what it means. It's like the Homeland Security Advisory System. Telling someone that we are at "red alert" or "Yellow alert" doesn't many anything without the key indicating that red means severe.

It would be better if dealerships pushed the E85 cars and trucks and gave detailed information about the fuel, the benifits, etc.

-Z

[briandors]

Biggest problem is refueling locations are almost non - existent!

I searched the E85 web site for my home state, Ohio. 2 pumps in the whole state, nothing close to me at all. I travel to FL often. So I was curious how many places along I 75 from Ohio to Tampa, FL I could refuel with E85. Answer: none. Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida. They all have like one station in the whole state.

Tauruses have been running around with their FFV badges for years, look what good its done Ford. We need refueling locations.

Perhaps more cars on the road will help spur that initiative.

[XCR440SP]

Hyping E85 is a double edged sword. It makes some people feel good that they are offering a Gasoline alternative vehicle, but many others are very against Ethonal as it is considered an energy waster due to the amount of Diesel fuel used to grow and harvest the corn, and it takes a lot of BTU's of heat to make Ethanol (which is usually supplied by Natural gas) so most environmentalists consider it worse than Gasoline. Also it isn't liked by most extreme conservitives since it can only survive with large government subsidies, although with the current gasoline prices its probably getting closer on price.

Also as a consumer the fuel economy drop can be very upsetting, for example a E85 Taurus is rated for 27 MPG on Gasoline, but only 20 MPG on E85.

[Swahili]

“We applaud General Motors’ continued commitment to bring more awareness to their flexible-fuel vehicle line,” said Curtis Donaldson, Chairman of the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition. “GM has made this a very important and large step to further consumer education.”

So because GM is changing the colour of the ethanol fuel gas tank caps to yellow, they're taking large steps to further conusmer education? A little far fetched isn't it? And just to add something, we're talking about the gas cap that is behind the fuel door correct? How many people are actually going to see this yellow gas cap other than the owner of the vehicle? If they do see it, how many people will actually know what it means?

I was hoping when I read the title of this thread that GM had somewhat advanced the efficiency of these engines or were making a push to make E85 fuel more available to the public.

GM is also considering a large marketing strategy that will help promote FFVs and E85. These plans include placing educational newspaper ads and distributing mailings to flexible-fuel vehicle owners informing them of their vehicle’s fuel capability and their closest E85 fueling site. There are now about 480 public E85 fueling sites in the U.S.

I think GM shouldn't just consider a marketing strategy to inform people about this, but once they have finalized plans for what the strategy should look like, they should make it well known to the industry what they are doing.

[T-Keith]

Great, increase our dependance on foreign oil and waste energy.

[cyboexpo2002]

Originally Posted by T-Keith

Great, increase our dependance on foreign oil and waste energy.

Umm no, not really. E85 DECREASES our dependence since its 85% ethanol from corn, and the only E85 sold here is made here from corn grown here.

[XCR440SP]

Just for curiosity, I looked at the local dealers inventorys online and not one of them shows a E85 Silverado in stock.

I also did the build your own thing an see that the E85 5.3L is an extra $190 and has 15 less Horsepower than the other 5.3L so this is probably the reason the dealer don't order them (did a 1LT Silverado E/C 1500 4x4). However, I think that its telling when here in rural Iowa where Ethanol supposed to be the Savior to the farmer that there aren't any around. I assume that either they aren't really availalbe in any quanity numbers, or more than likely even the Farmers won't pay the extra $ for a lower powered engine.