FFVs cost no more than gasoline only vehicles and are manufactured as standard equipment. Holiday Stationstores, Kwik Trip, Freedom and individual Ashland, Cenex, Conoco and Mobil stations will join ten existing stations already offering E85 in Minnesota. In addition, the University of Minnesota, the State of Minnesota and Hennepin County soon will offer E85 fueling to their fleets. The U.S. Postal Service has ordered more than 22,000 E85-capable delivery vehicles that will begin deployment before the year's end. The U.S. General Services Administration and U.S. Department of Energy are concentrating resources in the Twin Cities and five other cities to boost numbers of alternative fuel vehicles in the federal fleet and the use of appropriate fuels in those vehicles.
Similar projects are presently underway in Chicago, Denver and in other parts of the country.
An estimated 700,000 FFVs will be on U.S. roadways by the end of 1999. On September 22 nd , Holiday Stationstores and Koch Petroleum Group introduced Blue Planet gasoline to the Twin Cities market. The first of its kind in the country outside California, this low-sulfur oxygenated gasoline meets proposed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency maximum sulfur standards six years early without compromising power and performance. While Blue Planet gasoline may be used by any gasoline powered engine, E85 is certified only for use in flexible fuel engines. Holiday Stationstores has taken a proactive stance on clean air fuels by offering these products to Minnesota consumers.