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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 ...

Coskata's new Lighthouse cellulosic ethanol plant, in depth Sebastian Blanco

Coskata's newly-opened semi-commercial flex ethanol facility in Madison, Pennsylvania is as small as it can possibly be. Co-located at a Westinghouse facility that also in some fashion uses ...

What is CAFE? Sebastian Blanco

It was big news when the Obama Administration updated CAFE requirements in May to a new and higher national MPG standard of 42 mpg for cars (26 mpg for light trucks) by 2016. The higher standards ...

REPORT: Bentley to delay flex-fuel capability for 2010 Continental Supersports 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

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 exactly been shy about touting the green angle of its upcoming 2010 Continental Supersports. Add ...

Top Ten "green" cars that met their fate during Cash for Clunkers 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

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, it's pretty clear that CNG vehicles burn clean, but that didn't stop 232 of them from meeting their ...

Frankfurt 2009: Audi A4 and A4 Avant go biofuel in Germany 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

Audi's big green reveal from the Frankfurt Motor Show is undoubtedly the e-Tron electric supercar – especially considering the recent comments about electric cars and diesels made by Audi North America President Johan de Nysschen. But there's another type of fuel/energy that Audi drivers ...

Dakar 2010: Klever Kolberg goes ethanol with UNICA's help 2 months ago on Autoblog Green

The 2009 Dakar Rally was won by a pair of diesel-powered Touareg TDIs. The oil-burners will face a new type of competition in the 2010 Dakar race thanks to a new ethanol-powered vehicle category. For the first time in the rally's 31-year history, a flex-fuel vehicle – a Mitsubishi Pajero ...

VIDEO: The real reason for the failure of ethanol? Bad marketing! 2 months ago on Autoblog Green

Over the last forty years, corn growers and automakers have repeatedly tried to convince America that ethanol was the solution to our ever growing thirst for petroleum. After all, we could just keep growing our own corn, distilling it into alcohol and pouring it in our tanks and say goodbye to ...

DOE invests $300 million in clean fuels, including one lonely hydrogen station 2 months ago on Autoblog Green

What does it cost to displace 38 million gallons of petroleum per year? According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), almost $300 million. That's the amount that DOE head Steven Chu announced last week would go from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into buying about 9,000 ...

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 ...

Ford: 2010 line 20-percent more efficient than '05 3 months ago on Autoblog Green

According to Ford, its 2010 lineup is about 20-percent more fuel efficient than it was in 2005, and that figure is only set to continue rising as the years progress. In fact, by 2015, Ford estimates its product line will be roughly 35-percent more fuel efficient than it was a decade prior. Says ...

Congressional Republicans call out Stephen Chu for flex-fuel vehicle remarks 3 months ago on Autoblog Green

Six Republican members of Congress have taken issue with DOE head Stephen Chu's call for all American vehicles to be E85-capable. Chu – who once said that ethanol, as it is made today, "is not the right crop for biofuels" – suggested the increase in flex-fuel availability during a ...

Derek Bell runs the Bentley Continental Supersports at Goodwood [w/VIDEO] 3 months ago on Autoblog Green

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U.S. Postal Service gets 6,500 new alternative power vehicles 4 months ago on Autoblog Green

As part of the U.S. General Services Administration's recent $210 million purchase of new vehicles from Chrysler, Ford and General Motors, the U.S. Postal Service is set to replace some 6,500 vehicles from its current fleet with more fuel efficient models. Of that number, 1,000 of the new ...

Swedish heatwave prompts recall of thousands of flex fuel Volvos 4 months ago on Autoblog Green

After receiving hundreds of complaints from Swedish drivers who have been left stranded by the side of the road, Volvo has recalled 8,500 of its V70 and S80 Flexifuel vehicles. Apparently the rigorous environmental testing the car maker employs does not extend to heatwaves like the one Sweden ...

Confirmed: HUMMER buyer plans new green model 4 months ago on Autoblog Green

Despite what could be construed as opposition by the Chinese government towards Tengzhong's bid to purchase the HUMMER division from General Motors, the company is still working towards finalizing the sale by October of this year and on future environmentally-friendly models. According to Yang ...

TransAtlas: a new and interactive map for alt-fuel hunters, policymakers 4 months ago on Autoblog Green

Ever wondered where all the biodiesel drivers are? Or how about where to find the most corn ethanol is made? Questions like these can be answered over at TransAtlas, a new project by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). While good old Joe Internet can ...

Lamborghini adds solar power to factory, vows to cut range CO2 35% by 2015 5 months ago on Autoblog Green

In the grand scheme of things, the facilities and products of Lamborghini don't really amount to a hill of beans. After all, the company only has one main factory that produces a few thousand cars a year. While those cars are high-powered and consume a lot of fuel per mile driven, Lamborghini ...

REPORT: Independent Hummer sees alt-fuel model within five years, still looking at H4 5 months ago on Autoblog Green

Now that General Motors has officially offloaded the HUMMER brand to Chinese machinery and equipment manufacturer Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd., the next logical question is where does the brand go from here? Perhaps the best person to answer that question would be ...

Institute of Mechanical Engineers: Electric cars aren't enough (w/POLL) 5 months ago on Autoblog Green

According to a recent survey from the Royal Automobile Club Foundation in the UK, there will be lots of people who want to buy electric vehicles but are going to get frustrated by the long delay in getting EVs ready for mass consumption. That's a problem, but the Institute of Mechanical Engineers ...

Money's not there for flex-fuel and other advanced technologies, automakers say 5 months ago on Autoblog Green

Here's the thing: American automakers used to fully support E85-capable (aka flex-fuel) vehicles. With a few cheap additions to a standard engine ($100, or thereabouts), a car could get a special badge, drink corn (where available) and get the automaker a bit of goodwill, especially from ...

"Great ethanol scam" can easily cost you $1,000, says BW 5 months ago on Autoblog Green

The undeniable shift towards E15 continues, but not everyone is liking it. Business Week's Ed Wallace has collected a series of anecdotes that shows what he calls the "unpublicized trend" of ethanol destroying fuel systems in America's cars even without the increase to E15. A lot of mechanics are ...

Spy shots: Bentley gets ready to run the 'Ring in the E85 Continental Supersports 5 months ago on Autoblog Green

At the Geneva Motor Show in March, Bentley unveiled its first-ever flex-fuel car, the Continental Supersports. Not only is this car the first production Bentley that will be capable of running on either gasoline of E85 ethanol, it also happens to be the most powerful production Bentley ever, putting ...

GTA Spano supercar makes 840 horsepower on ethanol 6 months ago on Autoblog Green

The massive 8.4L V10 engine from the Dodge Viper has never been short on power. This undeniable fact hasn't stopped enterprising souls from tweaking the powerplant to offer even more, however, and past efforts have focused on doing so through the use of ethanol in lieu of gasoline. That route is ...

Lotus Exige 270E Tri-Fuel to enter production? 6 months ago on Autoblog Green

Could the Lotus Exige 270E Tri-Fuel enter production? According to a post on Lotus Enthusiast, that's an entirely real possibility due to interest from Youngman Auto, which is the British automaker's Chinese partner. It seems that the Tri-Fuel was a bit hit at the recent Shanghai Motor Show, ...

GM makes the case for testing E15 ethanol blend 6 months ago on Autoblog Green

GM has long been a proponent of using high-level ethanol blend, E85, in motor vehicles. But, with all of the talk of putting E15 or E20 (gasoline with 15 or 20 percent ethanol blended in) into the national supply - see these earlier posts about the EPA, the Minnesota Ag Department, the Secretary of ...

SAE 2009: Honda Titan Mix flex-fuel motorcycle looks good, can burn E100 6 months ago on Autoblog Green

Over at the Honda booth on the SAE World Congress expo floor, we spotted a very beautiful motorcycle known as the CG150 Titan Mix. Currently on sale in Brazil, the Titan Mix is the world's first production flex-fuel motorcycle, and it looks great. It's small but not weak, slippery but not ugly, ...

Automakers and utilities reach agreement on plug-standard 6 months ago on Autoblog Green

Just days after General Motors put out the call to settle on a plug standard for electric vehicles, it appears that an agreement has been reached - in Europe at least. The plug design will be unveiled at a German technology fair on Monday by energy company RWE. The plug design uses three prongs and ...

Nissan adds flex-fuel version of the Versa ... in Brazil 6 months ago on Autoblog Green

In Brazil, ethanol tends to be the fuel of choice over gasoline thanks to favorable pricing and the local sugar cane feedstock. As a result most of the cars available there are offered in flex fuel variants that aren't for sale anywhere else in the world. Such is the case with the latest edition of ...

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 ...

New York 2009: Chrysler's new flex-fuel V6 debuts in 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee 7 months ago on Autoblog Green

When Chrysler revealed the new Jeep Grand Cherokee this week in New York, it marked the first public appearance of the company's new V6 engine family. What had previously been referred to as the Phoenix is now officially dubbed the Pentastar V6. Over the next couple of years, variants of this ...

Peugeot adds flex-fuel 308 to its range 7 months ago on Autoblog Green

Supporting biofuels in its lineup is nothing new to Peugeot. All of the diesel-powered cars sold by Peugeot and Citroën already support the use of B30 biodiesel blends. Now, Peugeot has added a flex-fuel capable engine to the 308 hatchback that can run on E85. The 308 BioFlex uses the same 110 ...

Nissan launches first flexfuel model in Brazil 7 months ago on Autoblog Green

Click on image for a gallery of the Nissan Livina The fact that one of the most important automakers in Brazil didn't offer a flex-fuel vehicle there is quite a surprising fact. Nissan is fixing this by offering the Nissan Livina, a compact 5-seat van (think Mazda5), with a flex-fuel engine ...

What should I consider before buying a "green" car? 7 months ago on Autoblog Green

Car sales have totally tanked. So what good is a post on buying the right green car? Well, the reality is that most people in the U.S. still need a car to get around and, with the possibility of a "cash for clunkers" deal moving through Congress, why not start to think about getting a new car? ...

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