page_title: Flexible-fuel vehicles in the United States
section_title: Barriers to adoption
hierarchical_section_title: Flexible-fuel vehicles in the United States / Barriers to adoption
caption_attribution_description: E85 sticker in the back of the fuel filler door (left top) + E85 bright yellow gas cap (left bottom) + Three typical U.S. commercial E85 flexible-fuel badges from Chrysler (top right) Ford (middle right) and GM (bottom right)
context_page_description: The fleet of flexible-fuel vehicles in the United States is the second largest in the world after Brazil, and there were more than 21 million 85 flex-fuel vehicles registered in the country by the end of 2017. Despite the growing fleet of E85 flex-fuel vehicles, actual use of ethanol fuel is limited due to the lack of E85 refueling infrastructure and also because many American flex-fuel car owners were not aware they owned an E85 flex-fuel vehicle. Flex-fuel vehicles are common in the Midwest, where corn is a major crop and is the primary feedstock for ethanol fuel production. Also the U.S. government has been using flex-fuel vehicles for many years.
  U.S. flex-fuel vehicles are optimized to run on a maximum blend of 15% gasoline with 85% anhydrous ethanol. This limit in the ethanol content is set to reduce ethanol emissions at low temperatures and to avoid cold starting problems during cold weather, at temperatures lower than 11 °C. The alcohol content is reduced during the winter in regions where temperatures fall below 0 °C to a winter blend of E70.
context_section_description: A 2005 survey found that 68% of American flex-fuel car owners were not aware they owned an E85 flex. This is due to the fact that the exterior of flex and non-flex vehicles look exactly the same; there is no sale price difference between them; the lack of consumer's awareness about E85s; and also the initial decision of American automakers of not putting any kind of exterior labeling, so buyers can be aware they are getting an E85 vehicle. In contrast, all Brazilian automakers clearly mark FFVs with badging or a high quality sticker in the exterior body, with a logo with some variant of the word Flex. Since 2006 many new FFV models in the US feature a bright yellow gas cap to remind drivers of the E85 capabilities. GM is also using badging with the text "Flexfuel/E85 Ethanol" to clearly mark the car as an E85 FFV, and Ford early flex-fuel models had a small decal reading "FFV" and the "leaf and road" logo, and later introduced badging keeping the "leaf and road" logo but changed the text to "Flex Fuel".
  As of 2017, there were more than 21 million E85 flex-fuel vehicles in the United States, however, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, only 862,837 flex-fuel fleet-operated vehicles were regularly fueled with E85 in 2011 in 2011. The Energy Policy Act of 2005, signed into law by President Bush on 8 August 2005, in its Section 701 requires the federal government's fleet of vehicles capable of operating on alternative fuels to be operated on these fuels exclusively, unless a waiver is granted if the alternative fuel is not reasonably available; or if the cost of the fuel required is unreasonably more expensive compared to gasoline. By 2008 the Federal vehicle fleet consisted of 594,900 vehicles, of which 128,491 run on E85, representing the majority of the alternative fuel vehicles in the Federal fleet that year. According to the Government Accountability Office, in 2010 Federal employees received waivers to use gasoline in 55 percent of fleet flex-fuel vehicles because E85 was not available.
  Some critics have argued that American automakers have been producing E85 flex models motivated by a loophole in the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements, that allows for a fuel economy credit for every flex-fuel vehicle sold, whether or not in practice these vehicles are fueled with E85. This loophole might allow the car industry to meet the CAFE targets in fuel economy just by spending between US$100 to US$200 that it cost to turn a conventional vehicle into a flex-fuel, without investing in new technology to improve fuel economy, and saving them the potential fines for not achieving that standard in a given model year. In an example presented by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the agency responsible for establishing the CAFE standards, the special treatment provided for alternative fuel vehicles, "turns a dual fuel vehicle that averages 25 mpg on gasoline or diesel... to attain the 40 mpg value for CAFE purposes." The current CAFE standards are 27.5 mpg for automobiles and 22.2 mpg for light-duty trucks."
  In late 2007, CAFE standards received their first overhaul in more than 30 years through the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), and were set to rise to 35 mpg by the year 2020. However, in May 2009 the Obama Administration announced a new harmonized national policy that will require an average fuel economy standard of 35.5 mpg in 2016. The flex-fuel CAFE credits are scheduled to end in 2016, but because the 2007 EISA made CAFE credits exchangeable between different classes of automobiles and tradable between companies, and also carmakers are allowed to carry over credits for up to five years, the flex-fuel credits accumulated up to 2016 can be carried over and traded until 2020. The CAFE standards proposed in 2011 for the period 2017-2025 will allow flexible-fuel vehicles to receive extra credit but only when the carmakers present data proving how much E85 such vehicles have actually consumed.
  A major restriction hampering sales of E85 flex vehicles or fuelling with
caption: Typical labeling used in the US to identify E85 vehicles. Top left: a small sticker in the back of the fuel filler door. Bottom left: the bright yellow gas cap used in newer models. E85 Flexfuel badging used in newer models from Chrysler (top right), Ford (middle right) and GM (bottom right).
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