Nevertheless, battery technology is advancing rapidly as government and industry work to extend vehicle range and reduce recharging times. Other disadvantages of electric vehicles for fleet operators to consider include high initial cost and battery replacement costs. Ethanol Also called grain alcohol, ethanol is reduced domestically from the fermentation of grains, sugars, cellulose, or agricultural waste products, or from ethylene, a derivative of the oil refining process. In gasohol, ethanol acts as an oxygenate by adding chemically bonded oxygen to gasoline. Oxygenates reduce CO emissions and increase the octane rating of gasoline.
Ethanol has the advantage for fleet operators of requiring few engine modifications.
In fact, vehicles are now available on the market that run on varying mixtures of ethanol and gasoline. In addition, vehicles burning ethanol have slightly more power than those burning gasoline. A disadvantage is that ethanol is currently more expensive than most other alternative fuels. And, like methanol, it can cause difficulty in starting a cold engine unless chemicals are added. Methanol Also known as wood alcohol, methanol is made domestically from natural gas, coal, wood, or fermented agricultural wastes.