E85 is the biggest farce ever. You only get about 2/3 the MPG on it vs gasoline, so it's a ripoff. Why buy it?

Question

I have a Dodge Grand Caravan that is a 'flex fuel' vehicle, which will burn E85 or gasoline. I drive mostly in town (las vegas) and get around 16 mpg in town on the lowest grade of gasoline. I carry a lot of equipment, tools, etc. I filled up 3x with E85, and I got around 10 to 11 mpg with it. It costs 3.50 a gallon vs 4.19 for gasoline. But I'd have to get it for around a buck a gallon CHEAPER than it is now to get the same costs per mile out of my vehicle. So what is the point of using it? To make myself 'feel better'? I know my wallet won't feel better. Plus, it drives up the price of corn. The only people it's benefiting are corn growers and companies like Archer Daniels Midland. It isn't benefiting the end user, that's for sure. Your thoughts on the matter?

Answer 1

E85 is a failing experiment.

But, socialists never want to admit that their policies don't work.

Instead, they're going to try to mandate that all gas stations refit their pumps (at the station owner's expense) to include E85 at all gas stations across the country.

Answer 2

That is because ethanol has 34% less thermal energy than gasoline. However it has much higher octane rating.

The octane rating doesn't get you more energy but it does allow use of higher compression ratio's

Cars designed for gasoline have a compression ratio of about 9 to 1 where gasoline runs most efficiently.

Ethanol runs most efficiently at about 14 to 1, however if the compression ratio was this high you could not run on gasoline.

Most gasolines now have some small ethanol blend since it is now used to replace MTBE which was a pollutant.

Just because your car will run on ethanol does not mean it is designed to run most efficiently on ethanol.

Brazilian cars are designed to run on 50% gasoline and 50% ethanol. Their government mandates this ane cars are designed accordingly, but not in the US yet.

Answer 3

Yes it is very very true ethanol has less efficiency compared to a 100% gasoline and do you see now ethanol based car now is now becoming a big issue now because the energy derived from it is from food and the food supplies are now been hurt by this alternative source