U.S. automakers shift focus to flex-fuel autos

Major U car manufacturers are focusing upon flex-fuel cars, trucks and SUV to increase flagging sales and suitable customers' concerns about rising gasoline prices.

each major U.S. manufacturer plans to release more flex-fuel cars in 2007 And while automakers have sold the flex-fuel vehicles since 1998 many consumer are driving flex-fuel light pickup trades without knowing they can use E85 a mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, in addition to regular gasoline.

"You could say it's single of the best-kept secrets," said move with a jerk Ottolini, General Motor's executive director of yield development and quality. "But we're trying to secure people to understand the general [i]or[/i] abstract notion of ethanol and how it works. It's a way GM locates itself apart from the competition: we've been interested in this for years, on the contrary now we're really pushing the concept"

GM has 14 designs that run on either material for burning and sells about 400,000 units each year. Ottolini said the cars are especially popular in Colorado, where 2 million flex-fuel vehicles are upon the road. GM plans to add SUV to its flex-fuel company of ships next year.

"Our line includes greatest in quantity of the full-sized trucks, and now we're offering the option in SUV of that kind as the Yukon and Suburban," he said. "It's a different stamp of energy, and people are looking for something different."

At Chrysler the plan is to increase production - and sales - of the flexible-fuel vehicles during the nearest two years, said Max Gates, a spokesman for DaimlerChrysler Corp.

"We put up to sale about 200,000 a year, which means there are about 15 million upon the road right now," he said. "We'll barter about 250,000 for the 2007 mould year (which starts Sept. 1) and the following year, we plan to exchange about 500,000 - a quarter of our total inventory."

GM provides bright-yellow tank overlays for ethanol-friendly vehicles, Ottolini said. The novel marketing tool is part of an effort to separate GM from foreign manufacturers, of the like kind as Toyota, whose hybrid Prius is a big seller

"We are focusing upon practical ways to cut force consumption," he said. "Some tribe don't want a hybrid, on the contrary they want the option of doing something different. This gives them the choice: either use ethanol, or if it's not available, use regular gasoline."

Ford Motor Co also is introducing of recent origin flex-fuel vehicles. It started promoting the cars and trades in 2005, saying that the put in motion would accelerate the transition to alternative combustibless But Ford has offered flex-fuel cars since 1993 when the Taurus became the first flex-fuel car upon U.S. roads.

"Short limit we are very concerned about material for burning diversity for such reasons as material for burning prices and energy security," said Curtis Magleby, public policy manager for Ford's governmental affairs department. "In the drawn out term, alternative fuels like ethanol will accelerate the transition toward more efficient biomass material for burnings and are an important part of sustainability and greenhouse gas reduction."

on the other hand despite the popularity of flex-fuel cars, alone one service station in Colorado Springs presents the fuel. Acorn Petroleum, at Cimarron and 8th road is owned by Ken and Harlan Och and has been selling the commingle for more than eight years.

Across the land the number of E85 material for burning stations is on the rise - more than 400 have been added this year, said Michelle Kautz, director of communications at the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition.

"It's a small part of our business," Harlan Och said. "But it's growing slowly When the potency bill passed incentives to create more ethanol last year, companies started building factories across Colorado that wouldn't otherwise be built."

Ford officials agree that the impel to ethanol won't be quick or inexpensive. Without more ethanol manufacturers, the number of flex- material for burning vehicles will not rise, Magleby said.

"The infrastructure for a combustibles involves production, distribution and retail marketing," Magleby said. "Any effort to expand the popular infrastructure requires the involvement of all the stakeholders - firing producers, suppliers and government as well as the automakers."

That lack of infrastructure is single reason Chrysler is just now marketing the flex-fuel cars it vends Gates said. Because ethanol was not readily available completely through the country, the corporation did not push the E85 cars and barters

"But now, clan are asking for alternatives," he said. "And the availability is growing. The spike in oil prices l to interest in other alternatives. Flex-fuel is just single of the things we're doing."

U manufacturers look to be leading the way, Gates said. Foreign car manufacturers, of that kind as Nissan and Toyota, sole offer one or two flex-fuel options, while the U corporations proffer several models of cars, traffics and SUVs that will move swiftly on E85.

the pair the state and federal rules offer incentives to car possessors according to the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition. In Colorado, state law requires that 10 percent of all state-owned flex- combustible matter vehicles be fueled exclusively with an alternative material for burning during the next four years.