Flexible Fuel Vehicles

Vehicles designed to run on a gasoline/ethanol blend are known as flexible fuel vehicles. These run on both types of fuel in any percentage up to 85 per cent, known as E85. E85 is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline and it is seasonally adjusted for cold weather. Depending on the percentage of ethanol, flexible fuel vehicles may qualify for a tax incentive. Flexible fuel vehicles require very few engine and fuel system modifications and perform just as well as their fossil fuel-only counterparts, except for a loss of 20-30% in terms of miles per gallon when fueled with E85.

Flexible fuel vehicles can also run on 100% ethanol, but in places where winter temperatures get lower than 11 degrees Celsius (52 degrees Fahrenheit), ethanol content is limited to a blend of E70 to start up the engine more efficiently.

Despite their relatively recent popularity, flexible fuel vehicles have been produced since the 1980s. In fact, between 1908 and 1927, Ford produced the Ford Model T, the first flexible fuel vehicle. Henry Ford was an advocate for ethanol, but cheap oil prices won out and the rest is history.

Brazil is the country with the highest number of flexible fuel vehicles (9.3 million), followed by the United States with 8 million. In fact, Brazil has been a reference in flexible fuel vehicles as the country started, as far back as 1975, to implement a program to replace fossil fuels with ethanol made from sugar cane. The initiative was a response to the oil crisis that marked that decade and an attempt to create independence from foreign oil. Since July 2007, the mandatory blend is 25% of alcohol.