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A major car manufacturer considered ethanol use for vehicles for a number of years in many of their vehicles, and in 1996 they felt that fuel prices had raised enough for people to be open to a new fueling option.
Corn has always been plentiful in the United States, and when processed correctly, they found that they had a renewable fuel alternative that could be used in a newly designed vehicle.
The newly designed vehicles were considered to be alternative fuel vehicles by Ford Motor Company. The ethanol use for vehicles was natural for the Flexible Fuel Vehicles or FFVs which were created by Ford so that ethanol could be used as one of the fuel sources for this vehicle. Evidently the general public has agreed with ethanol use for vehicles because more than 1.6 million of these vehicles have been sold since 1996.
The Flexible Fuel Vehicles gave drivers the option of filling the fuel tanks with ethanol, or using regular gasoline. With ethanol use for vehicles, they also had the option of combining the two fuels together to make one tank of fuel. Since ethanol is a blended fuel made up of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, it was only natural to consider ethanol for vehicles and allow customers to be able to mix and match the tanks of gas that could be purchased on any given day.
Some people want to consider ethanol to fuel their vehicles but are not sure if ethanol is suitable for the vehicles that they have at home. The Vehicle Identification Number on all vehicles will be able to identify whether an automobile is capable of using ethanol. The 8th digit of the vehicle identification number holds the key to whether a vehicle can run on this renewable fuel alternative.
The decoding process for the vehicle identification code has been simplified by Ford Motor Company. Vehicle owners are invited to enter all of their vehicle identification numbers into a website specially designed to handle this task. When drivers go to website www.customersaskfor.com and enter the vehicle identification number, they will know if ethanol use for vehicles at their home is possible.
Ford Motor Company also simplified the process of identifying whether ethanol use for vehicles was possible by placing an E85 label in the fuel door of cars and trucks that could use the ethanol, ethanol and gas, or gasoline alternative fuel choices on their automobiles.
E85 is the commonly recognized name for ethanol fuel, and is listed as such on fuel pumps alongside regular unleaded, premium unleaded and super unleaded fuel selections in some but not all states.
Ford has authorized ethanol use for vehicles in four Flexible Fuel Vehicle models. They are the Ford Crown Victoria, Lincoln Town Car, Mercury Grand Marquis and the Ford F-150. More than 250,000 Flexible Fuel Vehicles were produced during 2006 and Ford Motor Company is working hard to increase the number of filling stations that will carry the ethanol fuel source.
Ethanol use for vehicles will help reduce the dependence that America has on foreign oil resources and help reduce greenhouse gases because it emits 18-29% less CO2.