Ford's introduction of its E85 Escape Hybrid research vehicle indicates that it finally understands that it's time to move past the oil era.
Finally! They get it, they really seem to get it!
That's my reaction to the press release today from Ford Motor Company announcing they that will be debuting the first OEM-engineered Flexible-Fuel Hybrid. Today at the Washington, D.C. Auto Show, the company that early this week announced massive job cuts and plant closings, finally had a bit of good news in the form of a Ford Escape Hybrid that they have adapted to run on E-85, a renewable biofuel blend of 85% ethanol, 15% gasoline.
Those of us in the sustainable mobility movement has been urging them to do this for months now. I approached Said Deep, who is one of Ford's Product Development and Technology Public Affairs officers early last year encouraging him to move in this direction. I know others with far more clout have done the same. This is just such a logical next step for them -- especially considering Ford is building "alcohol"-fueled cars in Brazil -- that it was a mystery as to why it's taken them so long to do this.
This is exactly the kind of innovation Ford desperately needs to demonstrate. This move, along with the Reflex diesel-hybrid it showed at NAIAS earlier this month, matches the near CO2-neutral benefits of home-grown biofuels with the improved performance characteristics of hybrid-electric drive. Because there is less BTU energy in ethanol than gasoline (76,000 vs. 114,000 BTU/gal, respectively), a car running on E85 typically gets about 30-35% fewer miles per gallon, so mating E85 and a hybrid-electric drive should translate into overall fuel economy comparable to gasoline, but without the environmental and national security implications associated with importing and/or burning petroleum.
Here are the three main bullet point from Ford's official press release:
- Ford's Escape Hybrid E85 can operate on renewable ethanol-based fuel.
- If just 5 percent of the U.S. vehicle fleet were powered by hybrids operating on E85 ethanol, oil imports could be reduced by about 140 million barrels a year.
- Escape Hybrid E85 produces about 25 percent less carbon dioxide than a gasoline-fueled Escape Hybrid - already the world's cleanest and most fuel-efficient small SUV.
All of these are very promising signs, as is Ford's earlier announcement that it and Verasun, a major South Dakota ethanol producer run by the son of my good friend and colleague Dr. Frank Jamerson, are working cooperatively to make E85 available at more filling stations across the nation and not just in the agricultural heartland.
Still, using E85 in a hybrid-electric IC engine poses its own share of engineering challenges as spelled out in the press release.
The Ford Escape Hybrid E85 research project will aim for breakthroughs that could further expand the appeal of ethanol-capable vehicles.
"Ford researchers are applying some of the best expertise in the industry in hybrid power controls, flexible fuel operation and exhaust after-treatment," says Nancy Gioia, director, Sustainable Mobility Technologies & Hybrid Programs. "We're working on the whole system, from the fuel tank through to the tailpipe, to optimize fuel efficiency and lower emissions."
Although Ford engineers have achieved very low tailpipe emissions with flexible-fuel vehicles (FFVs), evaporative emissions remain a challenge. Some blends of ethanol are much more volatile than gasoline, so a more aggressive evaporative system is necessary. A full hybrid application presents additional evaporative challenges, because the vehicle often operates on electric power alone without actuating the evaporative vacuum system that operates when the gasoline engine is in use.
I am confident that Ford can solve these problems, perhaps by installing the solar panel from the Reflex concept vehicle to run the evaporative vacuum system for those brief periods of time when the vehicle is in EV-only mode.
But before we get too excited, a word of caution is needed, as my colleague in the UK, Chris Ellis points out in his comments about the CNN Money story about Ethanol: The Forever Fuel.
In referencing a graph in "Growing Energy", published by the NRDC, Ellis cautions...
The chart on page VIII... vividly illustrates that it is ONLY reduced fuel consumption (of whatever sort) that can deliver most of the reduction in oil imports we need over the next twenty plus years. In other words, without hybridization, better aerodynamics, weight reduction, etc, we're still screwed. So let's not end up with too many of us driving vehicles which get less than 10 mpg on E85, or the US will still be importing just as much oil, and paying even more for it.
He concludes by saying that America's "excellent cellulosic ethanol thrust mustn't become an excuse for 'laziness' on fuel economy".
Bloody, right on!