ACE unveils never before demonstrated ethanol hybrid electric flex fuel vehicle project

In South Dakota, the American Coalition for Ethanol unveiled a vehicle demonstration project to disrupt the “net-zero” is only achievable via electric vehicles narrative by showing low to net-zero-carbon vehicles powered by ethanol already have cleaner lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions than plug-in electrics, and could reach net-zero long before EVs on the market today.

ACE Senior Vice President Ron Lamberty drove a Hybrid Electric Ford Fusion he recently purchased to California earlier this month to meet with E85 wholesaler Pearson Fuels and the owners of eFLexFuel Technology to install their flex fuel conversion kit on Lamberty’s hybrid. He drove the now Hybrid Electric Flex Fuel Ford Fusion, he nicknamed “HEFF,” back to South Dakota and brought it to the ACE conference in Minneapolis last week to give attendees a first look at the vehicle at the beginning of a three-year demonstration project. The front-wheel-drive midsize sedan starts up on electricity and is powered by a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine capable of using up to E85 matched to an electric motor for a combined 188 horsepower.

Full electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) are only as clean as the electricity used to charge them, or the gasoline used to power them, and right now, there are hard environmental realities facing electric vehicles, including how the electricity they use is generated in most of the country. According to Lamberty, from a total greenhouse gas reduction standpoint, it makes sense for a hybrid to use the cleanest liquid fuel available when charging and not running on electricity, and that’s E85. Lamberty calculated a hybrid electric vehicle running on low-CI E85 could obtain a total GHG score as low as 20 to 25 grams of CO2 per mile, which is lower than current EPA total GHG emissions calculations for PHEVs or full EVs.  Yet no major automakers offer a flex-fuel hybrid vehicle.