I recently discovered one of the country’s leading “one weird trick” internet marketing companies is Barton Publishing, headquartered a few miles away from me here in South Dakota. And having just completed year two of a three-year program proving there’s an inexpensive and simple way to reduce carbon pollution and improve public health quickly—using a common product grown by farmers—it struck me that this assertion sounds a lot like one of the “they hate us” and “one weird trick” promos, and maybe that’s a way to get more eyeballs on “HEFF,” ACE’s Hybrid Electric Flex Fuel vehicle. But making the long-winded video linked to those ads (so I'm told—I would never fall for that stuff) isn’t in my skill set, and more importantly, our weird trick actually works, which might confuse regular clickers. So, I’ll just provide an update on our results, but as a homage to my newly discovered “one weird trick" neighbors, you’ll have to read a bunch of my blather before I cough up numbers.

To recap, almost three years ago, when California’s governor announced a zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) requirement for the state, most media (and probably the governor) understood that to mean electric vehicles (EVs) only. However, if the state is truly interested in zero emissions vehicles, we theorized a standard hybrid with an internal combustion engine (ICE) powered by E85, could be a ZEV, and when total lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are tallied (not just tailpipe, where CA EVs stop), will have similar or lower CI than plug-in EVs. Further, when carbon intensity (CI) scoring correctly reflects CI reductions possible and already being achieved by farmers and ethanol producers, a standard hybrid FFV can be a ZEV long before any EV.

We’re testing our theory using a standard-sized hybrid vehicle, so results won’t be dismissed as coming from a specialty vehicle or tiny clown car. We bought a 2019 Ford Fusion Hybrid in July 2021 for about $50k less than the most popular new EVs, filled it with E10 and drove 3,688 miles to establish a real-world fuel use baseline, rather than competing with fictional best-case showroom sticker mileage and EPA emissions estimates saying our car should get 42 mpg on E10, with lifecycle CO2 of 255 grams per mile. That’s much better than the 25 mpg and 430 g/m of the non-hybrid Fusion, but pre-transition E10 HEFF’s results were just under 35 mpg and 310 g/m CO2. We’ve also periodically run tanks of E10 to recalibrate for winter temps, age, and battery capacity changes. All results are used to estimate gas consumption and cost with each fill; our goal is to demonstrate low CI and durability, but critics always ask about mileage and cost. 

By comparison, depending on where you plug in, EPA estimates 2019 Tesla 3 Long Range emits 110 to 180 grams/mile CO2 based on 310 miles per charge. Unscientific Uber driver estimates say they get 225 to 240 miles, and Car and Driver’s scientific 40,000-mile test agreed, getting 80 miles below 310 per charge, making Tesla’s real CO2 number 150-245 grams/mile.

Our baseline trip ended in San Diego, where Pearson Fuels arranged to transform the Fusion to HEFF with an eFlexFuel Plus conversion kit. Recording price, miles, and ethanol content of every fuel purchase, and calculating E10 use and cost, so far, the one weird trick of running our hybrid 24,867 miles on flex fuel produced average lifecycle GHGs of 202 g/m CO2—comparable to real Tesla numbers. Regular gas in the vehicle would’ve emitted 375 g/m CO2. And HEFF chugged 958 gallons of E71 vs. a calculated 770 gallons regular, but the E71 cost $2,500, compared to $2,719 for gas. More details to come!  

Author: Ron Lamberty
Chief Marketing Officer, 
American Coalition for Ethanol
rlamberty@ethanol.org

Published in the 2023 September issue of Ethanol Producer Magazine