This year will likely be full of competition between electric vehicles (EVs) and ethanol-powered hybrids as the ethanol industry makes a play for a share of the carbon-reducing vehicle market and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moves to finalize tough new auto emission rules. The EPA proposed very tough new car pollution rules in 2023 that could force EVs to make up two-thirds of new cars sold in the U.S. by 2032, cutting their emissions in half. At a Growth Energy summit, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said that farmers should stop blaming electric vehicles and look to expand ethanol markets in aviation and other ways.
“Farmers come up to me and they say, ‘Ah, would you stop talking about electric vehicles,’” Vilsack said. “No, because we want to make sure that we continue to have manufacturing in this country. It’s not going to put you guys out of business. It’s not. We’re going to have cars that use ethanol for a long, long time.”
However, Renewable Fuels Association head Geoff Cooper said that EVs could actually suppress ethanol demand, and they still have plenty of issues that need to be addressed.
“They, in most cases, do not deliver the range that was advertised, that they have problems in extremely hot weather or extremely cold weather, that there are problems with finding places to charge these vehicles,” Cooper said.
Cooper added that the RFA’s been road testing a plug-in hybrid flex fuel vehicle that uses E85.
“If you are truly interested, and if you are truly serious about reducing carbon emissions and doing it at the lowest cost possible for consumers and doing it in a way that doesn’t compromise or sacrifice vehicle range and convenience, this is what we’ve got to be looking at,” Cooper said.
The test vehicle, a Ford Escape, got 440 miles out of a full tank of E85 and full charge, which is nearly double that of a comparable EV.
