The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 222
poorer performance and a decrease in MPG. I was wondering if you would comment on it?
Reply from MARC
Hi Brian - Thanks for your email and for taking the time to contact us. I hope
you're having a very enjoyable summer.
The 8-year old story from Edmunds that you submitted is interesting but merely
one of any number of anecdotal stories that could show one fuel better than the
other. For those not familiar with the Edmunds article, and they don't wish to
read that article before continuing, I'll give a brief summary: Two of Edmunds'
writers compared gasoline against E85 by driving a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe LT
roundtrip from Las Vegas to San Diego on two successive days. On the first
day they used gasoline, the 2nd day they used E85. The authors did not specify
if the gasoline was E10 or some type of ethanol-free gasoline.
The result of their test was:
Gas Result: From San Diego to Las Vegas and back, we used 36.5 gallons of
regular gasoline and achieved an average fuel economy of 18.3 mpg.
Gas Cost: We spent $124.66 for gasoline for the trip. The average pump price
was $3.42 per gallon.
E85 Result: From San Diego to Las Vegas and back we used 50 gallons of
E85 and achieved an average fuel economy of 13.5 mpg.
E85 Cost: We spent $154.29 on E85 for the trip. The average pump price was
$3.09 per gallon.
Gas/E85 difference: The fuel economy of our Tahoe on E85, under these conditions, was 26.5 percent worse than it was when running on gas.
The Edmunds article closes with a comment about ethanol being energy negative (takes more energy to produce than it delivers).
Right off the bat, environmental conditions, such as the wind the authors talked
about, could have easily accounted for any difference. Unless the wind blew in
