MacMan,
When I had a gf in the UK I used to suggest to her getting her car converted to LPG because the cost is closer to what we pay for fuel here in the US. I watched her pay $42 USD for 7 gallons of gasoline and think nothing of it and that just about floored me. I also noticed during my time there that large cars and SUV's are practically non-existent. There are a few Ford Explorer/Jeep Cherokee sized models sold there, but nothing approaching the size of our more gargantuan models. The largest cars I saw were maybe Toyota Camry/Nissan Maxima sized and even those were rare. Most were entry level hatchbacks. Unless you are really rich and can afford to keep them filled up cars with low fuel economy aren't going to sell there. High road tax on inefficient vehicles is also a consideration when buying a car there.
Mike R.,
Unfortunately, unless your car is a duel fuel model, E85 doesn't do you any good. A gasoline only car can run on E15 blend without modifications, but you don't see that sold anywhere. The problem with ethanol is that corn is not an efficient source of it. Sugarcane is the best source and Brazil has plenty of excess capacity, but the government currently levies a high tax on Brazilian ethanol to keep it off the market here and instead shovels tons of our money into developing corn based ethanol which is nowhere near as clean or efficient to produce and have the people convinced that this is a better thing than eliminating the tariff on imported ethanol and meanwhile the price of food and energy continues to soar when the prices of both would fall if they allowed imports from Brazil.
When I had a gf in the UK I used to suggest to her getting her car converted to LPG because the cost is closer to what we pay for fuel here in the US. I watched her pay $42 USD for 7 gallons of gasoline and think nothing of it and that just about floored me. I also noticed during my time there that large cars and SUV's are practically non-existent. There are a few Ford Explorer/Jeep Cherokee sized models sold there, but nothing approaching the size of our more gargantuan models. The largest cars I saw were maybe Toyota Camry/Nissan Maxima sized and even those were rare. Most were entry level hatchbacks. Unless you are really rich and can afford to keep them filled up cars with low fuel economy aren't going to sell there. High road tax on inefficient vehicles is also a consideration when buying a car there.
Mike R.,
Unfortunately, unless your car is a duel fuel model, E85 doesn't do you any good. A gasoline only car can run on E15 blend without modifications, but you don't see that sold anywhere. The problem with ethanol is that corn is not an efficient source of it. Sugarcane is the best source and Brazil has plenty of excess capacity, but the government currently levies a high tax on Brazilian ethanol to keep it off the market here and instead shovels tons of our money into developing corn based ethanol which is nowhere near as clean or efficient to produce and have the people convinced that this is a better thing than eliminating the tariff on imported ethanol and meanwhile the price of food and energy continues to soar when the prices of both would fall if they allowed imports from Brazil.