Ethanol has a long history of use with automobiles. Henry Ford designed a car in 1880 to run solely on ethanol. His first mass produced car - the Model-T - could operate on either ethanol or gasoline. Ethanol is nontoxic, renewable and biodegradable, and can be made from almost any agricultural feed stock high in sugars or starch. There are other benefits as well -- no oil drilling, no oil spills, net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, and no war required.

E85 Stations in California.

Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) are automobiles or light trucks with the ability to operate on regular gasoline as well as ethanol. Nearly 3 million FFVs are already on the road, with an estimated 230,000 in California alone. There are dozens of FFV models available from a variety of auto manufacturers, including Ford, General Motors, Daimler Chrysler, Mercedes Benz, SAAB, Peugeot, Mazda, Isuzu, and Mercury - you may already own one without realizing it (click here for a list of common FFVs).

It is also possible to modify a standard gasoline vehicle to run on as much as 100% alcohol. For information on how this upgrade works, please see our page on the FullFlex bi-fuel converter.

Although California is slow to adopt the use of ethanol, it has replaced MTBE as an oxygenate. Therefore, California gas now contains about 5.7% ethanol. There are nearly 1,200 U.S. fueling stations offering ethanol at the pump, but only one exists in California (San Diego) at this time. Brazil has been putting 22% ethanol in all gasoline since the 70's and recently bumped it up to 24%. In addition, a number of other countries (Canada, China, Thailand, Sweden, and more) are making the switch from gas to ethanol).

• Member Page
• Leaflets
• FlexTune Bi-Fuel Converter
• List of common FFVs