French study shows advantages of hybrid vehicles using E85

In France, Euroactive reported that a new French study found that hybrid vehicles running with up to 85% renewable ethanol (E85) are just as climate-friendly as electric vehicles if the “full-life-cycle” argument is taken into account. The study, conducted by IFPEN – a French public institute dealing with energy and environment – measured and compared the greenhouse-gas emissions of vehicles powered solely by petrol, plug-in flex-fuel hybrids running on E85, and all-electric cars, based on a full life cycle analysis. The life cycle analysis, according to the study, accounts for all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions connected with the vehicle and its battery (from manufacture to recycling), as well as in the energy used (production, refinery, transport, distribution and combustion). “This comparison, applying to 2022 with projections for 2040, shows that plug-in flex-fuel hybrids running on E85 operating 40% of distance travelled as an electric vehicle are at least as climate-friendly as full electric vehicles, with the French electric power mix, which is already low-carbon, and even more with the average European mix, which has a higher carbon footprint,” the study reads.

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