ethonal fuel or hybrid car?

Answer 1

There are several E85 flex-fuel vehicles available on the market. The biggest problem is trying to find a filling station. (There's none in the 6 New England US states, for example.)

For fueling stations:
http://www.e85refueling.com/
http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/infrastructure/e85_stations.cgi
http://afdcmap2.nrel.gov/locator/

For cars that don't need gasoline (look for the Flex-fuel listings for E85 vehicles): http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/byfuel/byfueltypeNF.shtml

As for gasoline/electric hybrid vehicles...

Current hybrids can only use up to 10% ethanol (E10). There are no hybrids that can use 85% ethanol (E85) yet. E10 is commonly becoming available as the default fuel in most states, with the phaseout of MTBE.

Ford has announced plans on releasing a flex-fuel (gasoline or E85) version of the Ford Escape Hybrid soon.
http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=22474

It is possible to use E85 on an unmodified Toyota Prius, but no long-term studies have been done yet (ethanol can break down parts of a car over time). No word on retrofit kits yet, either.

Short term study by the Creed Project on a (2001-2003) Prius http://www.greenenergynetwork.com/media/studies/prius-e85.PDF shows
that you'll get a check engine light, cold start emissions are higher, and overall MPG is lower.

There's at least one person from Sweden on the Prius-Europe Yahoo!Group that is currently using E85 as a blend with regular gasoline in his Prius (closer to 50-65% ethanol).


Unfortunately, E85 is not necessarily better for fuel economy or the environment.

There is currently a loophole that allows manufacturers to gain MPG credits towards CAFE for producing dual-fuel vehicles (all E85 vehicles on the market so far can also run on gasoline, so are dual-fuel), even if they never are fueled with that alternative fuel.

Ethanol has a lower energy content than gasoline, so fuel economy is actually worse when using E85 rather than straight gasoline on the same vehicle. (see the dual ratings on the fueleconomy.gov site above.) And with the lack of fueling stations, the current flex-fuel E85 vehicles on the road are run 90+% of the time on regular gasoline.

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/11174/tech-stuff-ethanol-promises-page7.html
http://www.aceee.org/transportation/dualfuel.pdf
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/cars_pickups_suvs/flex-fuel-vehicles.html
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2020


Just for some numbers, take these midsize cars:

2006 Chevy Monte Carlo
on gasoline it gets EPA 21 MPG city, 31 MPG highway
on E85 it gets EPA 16 MPG city, 24 MPG highway.
Annual greenhouse gas emissions using gasoline: 7.4 tons
Annual greenhouse gas emissions using E85: 5.9 tons
100,000 highway miles on gasoline uses about 3225.8 gallons of gasoline.
100,000 highway miles on E85 uses about 4166.7 gallons of E85, or 3541.7 gallons of ethanol and 625.0 gallons of gasoline

2006 Toyota Prius (hybrid)
on gasoline it gets EPA 60 MPG city, 51 MPG highway.
Annual greenhouse gas emissions using gasoline: 3.4 tons
100,000 highway miles on gasoline uses about 1960.8 gallons of gasoline.


Really, you go with E85 for less overall petroleum use and/or political reasons, and not for fuel economy or the environment.

I guess the best of both worlds would be when the current/upcoming hybrids are also flex-fuel vehicles (use E85)?

Answer 2

For now I would go with the hybrid due to the lack of available places to get ethonal fuel.

Answer 3

Hybrid car definitely if you got money, but otherwise, ethonal fuel.

Answer 4

How about a hybrid that uses ethanol

Answer 5

Hybrid all the way for distances, because you can transform it to solar.
Ethanol for power, speed and showing off.

...oh yeah, if you need to get up a hill too!

Answer 6

Not hybrids. They are too slow. Only for slow moving people. I like to go fast.

Answer 7

Both will help reduce our dependance on oil and therefore it is a good thing.