Ethanol Car

Is An Ethanol Car Right Around the Corner?

The quick answer is no, because the ethanol car actually already exists today. In 2004, according to American Coalition for Ethanol, one third of US Gasoline was E10, which is an unleaded petrol solution, consisting of 10% Ethanol. While this is not a very big step, environmentally speaking, it is leaps and bounds from where the alternative fuel movement was ten years ago. Even massive amounts of the 10% solution won't began to deter the violent destruction of our atmosphere caused by gasoline, but it is still a big step in the right direction. Why? Because any car can run on the E10 ethanol fuel, and the effect is an almost universal improvement on gas mileage and engine performance. While E10 doesn't run as efficiently or clearly as a car specifically built to run on ethanol heavy solutions, such as an E85 ethanol car solution, it still means that people are becoming aware of ethanol, buying ethanol, and most importantly, *using* ethanol. Environmental aspects aside, ethanol cars and regular cars using the E10 solution run smoother, longer, and better than cars using petrol. This means that E10 is cheaper to use than other fuels, and that--after the initial investment--higher ethanol-content solutions would be even better on the budget.

“The Ethanol car can be the car of the future, not only will it not use regular polluting fuel, it could even improve the quality of the environment.”

Fuel efficiency, however, isn't where we would be saving the most money. It's true that ethanol is one of the best known fuels for cars, but the important, money saving fact to keep in mind is that it can be grown. It is a renewable, sustainable resource and we can pull it right out of U.S. soil. Ethanol is a 'green' product, and comes directly out of plants such as Corn and the quick growing Switchgrass: this is what makes it the fuel of the future. Ethanol is the key to reducing and eliminating the U.S. dependency on foreign oil and for making the environment a slightly more livable place.
 
Where can you get an ethanol car? General Motors is currently leading the way in transitioning their ethanol car over to use E85; however, since an ethanol car doesn't produce the same horse power as gasoline, they've been focusing on their big six cylinder cars where the impact isn't as noticeable. The Chevy Avalanche and the Ford Escape are both E85 capable ethanol car models.
 
There is, however, one major problem with Ethanol as a fuel for cars. The Oil Companies, (Read: Exxon-Mobil and Shell) are trying to corner the Ethanol market. E85 is a serious threat to their income margin, and they have, in the last few months alone, single handedly and artificially raised the price of Ethanol fuels to make it about a buck per gallon more expensive than regular unleaded--for no other reason than that ethanol might someday displace oil, and they don't want to lose their market share.
 
But, that's okay; I already knew they were evil. This just proves it.