E85

In Brazil, ethanol fuel is neat at the pumps, hence flexible-fuel vehicles (FFV) including trucks, tractors, motorbikes and mopeds run on E100.

Having a guaranteed ethanol fraction obviates the need for a vehicle system to calculate best engine tune accordingly to maximise performance and economy.

Use of alcohol (ethanol and methanol) in motor racing history parallels the invention of the automobile, favoured due to inherent combustion characteristics such as high thermal efficiency, high octane rating, raised torque and with some advanced engines, better specific fuel consumption.

[3] Mileage is dependent upon the composition of the ethanol-gasoline blend, transmission, state of engine tune (primarily fuel-air mixture, spark timing and compression ratio).

In the United States to offset this difference in fuel consumption in vehicles not optimised for ethanol, legislation has been passed to subsidize its cost.

However comparing energy expressed as a value of heat does not reflect the total work from an Otto Cycle[citation needed].

For vehicles with in-tank-mounted fuel pumps, precautions to prevent arcing, as well as flame arrestors positioned in the tank's fill pipe, are sometimes used.

Due to its low price and high availability in certain areas people have started to turn to using it in place of high-end racing fuels, which typically cost over US $10.00/gal.

For example, E85 is less volatile than gasoline or low-volume ethanol blends, which results in fewer evaporative emissions.

[8] A study by Purdue University found that the economic benefit of E85 is highly dependent on the price of crude oil.

E85 advocates counter that concern by pointing out that over 93% of all corn grown in the United States is never fed directly to people, but is instead used as livestock feed[citation needed].

E85 critics contend that ethanol producers may not reduce carbon emissions due to the petroleum and natural gas used in raising corn and refining it.

Some say that cellulosic ethanol produced from waste materials or fast growing non-food crops such as switchgrass is much more beneficial, but not yet economically practical at large scale.

E85 is increasingly common in the United States, mainly in the Midwest where corn is a major crop and is the primary source material for ethanol-fuel production.

The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 created the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) to subsidize production costs.

[20] In the United States, to realize equivalent fuel economy at the pump with an FFV, the price of E85 must be much lower than gasoline.

However, in Australia, where Holden has sold more than 70,000 FFVs since 2010, the difference in combined consumption on similar V8 variants in a family sedan is between 10% and 20%.