General Motors aims for 10,000 E85 stations in US by 2011; supports conversion with direct marketing to flex-fuel vehicle owners, grant-finding support

In New York, the energy and environment director for General Motors told the Reuters Global Agriculture and Biofuel Summit that it aims to help 10,000 US gas stations to add E85 pumps by 2011. General Motors assists stations add E85 by locating grant money for conversion and supporting conversions with direct marketing to GM’s base of flex-fuel vehicle buyers.

Last week, the CEO of General Motors, Rick Wagoner, said that the US needs to increase the number of ethanol stations by a factor of 10-15, from 1400 today to as many as 20,000. The US has 170,000 gas stations in total. He added that the company has been working with companies such as Wal-Mart and Target to add ethanol to their fuel distribution services.

GM continues to push hard on promotion of E85 and flex-fuel vehicles as an offset to the imposition of stricter CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards. Every flex-fuel car sold contributes an offset to each car maker’s CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standard, under the new Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) signed last month.

General Motors is conducted an E85 Fall Fuel for Thought Tour last fall, following its E85 Days of Summer Tour, which was an 85-day promotional tour for the GM flex-fuel vehicles. Each stop of the fall E85 vehicle and promotion tour partnered GM with gas stations and in some cases academic institutions, which promoted E85 and engaged in biofuels mythbusting.

In Washington, the American Coalition on Ethanol presented findings on research showing that cars running on E20 and E30 blends achieved better mileage than cars running 100 percent conventional gasoline. Scientists at General Motors, whose cars were involved in the test, were unable to explain how the ethanol blend, which contained 6 to 11 percent less BTUs, could get better mileage. In the tests, a Chevrolet Impala flex-fuel vehicle running E20 achieved 15 percent better mileage than when running 100 percent gasoline. Tests were also conducted on Toyota vehicles.

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