energy.agwired.com

The president of the Renewable Fuels Association this week took Honda and Toyota to task for not marketing flex fuel vehicles (FFVs) in the United States. Bob Dinneen wrote letters to the heads of U.S. operations for both car makers asking them to reconsider their decisions.
In the case of Honda, Dinneen questioned the decision in light of the fact that Honda does market FFVs for use in Brazil.
“Honda’s willingness to produce flex-fuel vehicles in Brazil, but not in the U.S., is curious, and it puts your company at a tremendous disadvantage to its American counterparts,” Dinneen wrote
The letter to Toyota refuted comments that the national manager of advanced technology for Toyota’s U.S. operation made in a recent Wall Street Journal article regarding ethanol’s environmental friendliness and sustainability.
“Ethanol has also been a key component of America’s effort to reduce tailpipe emissions,” Dinneen responds in the letter. “Adding ethanol to gasoline dramatically reduces carbon monoxide pollution, and its oxygen content helps to reduce exhaust hydrocarbon emissions as well. Ethanol also helps to reduce combustion chamber deposits. Finally, ethanol is providing refiners with a clean octane alternative to more toxic gasoline additives.”
In both letters, Dinneen also notes that a recent survey found that more than 90 percent of American drivers would prefer an FFV to a conventional gasoline or diesel engine. In addition, Dinneen strongly urged both automakers, who have built strong reputations in the hybrid vehicle market, to incorporate the use of renewable fuels like ethanol in future hybrid technology development.
Here’s a link to the full news release. Copies of the letters are also available there.

Here’s a couple of national feature stories about ethanol and flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) that have come out in the last couple of days:

This Knight-Ridder article, dateline Maryland, has the headline “Ethanol gets a push, but road ahead fraught with challenge.” It starts off talking about how E85 is not selling well outside of the midwest unless it is lower in price, but also brings up the fact that there some five million FFV’s on the road, that ethanol production is increasing and that oil companies are the major obstacle to increased ethanol use. This story, which includes quotes from Bob Dinneen at the Renewable Fuels Association and Phil Lampert at the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, got some very good distribution nationwide. The link is to the long version of the story, which also includes some international bio-fuels facts at the end of the piece.

This Associated Press article just came out today, dateline Los Angeles. In typical mainstream media fashion, it starts out with the charge that automakers are making more FFVs to “skirt mileage standards.” Not a real positive tone in the story for the industry, but it does point out the number of FFVs on the road, that E85 is often cheaper than gasoline and that car companies are starting to promote their FFVs. It also points people to e85fuel.com to find out if their car will run on 85 percent ethanol fuel.