page_title: Flexible-fuel vehicle
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Flexible-fuel vehicle / Flexible-fuel vehicles by country / United States
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: A flexible-fuel vehicle or dual-fuel vehicle is an alternative fuel vehicle with an internal combustion engine designed to run on more than one fuel, usually gasoline blended with either ethanol or methanol fuel, and both fuels are stored in the same common tank. Modern flex-fuel engines are capable of burning any proportion of the resulting blend in the combustion chamber as fuel injection and spark timing are adjusted automatically according to the actual blend detected by a fuel composition sensor. Flex-fuel vehicles are distinguished from bi-fuel vehicles, where two fuels are stored in separate tanks and the engine runs on one fuel at a time, for example, compressed natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, or hydrogen.
  The most common commercially available FFV in the world market is the ethanol flexible-fuel vehicle, with about 60 million automobiles, motorcycles and light duty trucks manufactured and sold worldwide by March 2018, and concentrated in four markets, Brazil, the United States, Canada, and Europe, led by Sweden.
context_section_description: As of 2017, there were more than 21 million E85 flex-fuel vehicles in the United States, up from about 11 million flex-fuel cars and light trucks in operation as of early 2013. The number of flex-fuel vehicles on U.S roads increased from 1.4 million in 2001, to 4.1 million in 2005, and rose to 7.3 million in 2008. 
  For the 2011 model year there are about 70 vehicles E85 capable, including sedans, vans, SUVs and pick-up trucks. Many of the models available in the market are trucks and sport-utility vehicles getting less than 20 mpg‑US (12 L/100 km; 24 mpg‑imp) when filled with gasoline. Actual consumption of E85 among flex-fuel vehicle owners is limited. Nevertheless, the U.S. Department of Energy estimated that in 2011 only 862,837 flex-fuel fleet-operated vehicles were regularly fueled with E85. As a result, from all the ethanol fuel consumed in the country in 2009, only 1% was E85 consumed by flex-fuel vehicles.
  The E85 blend is used in gasoline engines modified to accept such higher concentrations of ethanol, and the fuel injection is regulated through a dedicated sensor, which automatically detects the amount of ethanol in the fuel, allowing to adjust both fuel injection and spark timing accordingly to the actual blend available in the vehicle's tank. Because ethanol contains close to 34% less energy per unit volume than gasoline, E85 FFVs have a lower mileage per gallon than gasoline. Based on EPA tests for all 2006 E85 models, the average fuel economy for E85 vehicles was 25.56% lower than unleaded gasoline.
  The American E85 flex-fuel vehicle was developed to run on any mixture of unleaded gasoline and ethanol, anywhere from 0% to 85% ethanol by volume. Both fuels are mixed in the same tank, and E85 is sold already blended. In order to reduce ethanol evaporative emissions and to avoid problems starting the engine during cold weather, the maximum blend of ethanol was set to 85%. There is also a seasonal reduction of the ethanol content to E70 (called winter E85 blend) in very cold regions, where temperatures fall below 0 °C (32 °F) during the winter. In Wyoming for example, E70 is sold as E85 from October to May.
  E85 flex-fuel vehicles are becoming increasingly common in the Midwest, where corn is a major crop and is the primary feedstock for ethanol fuel production. Regional retail E85 prices vary widely across the US, with more favorable prices in the Midwest region, where most corn is grown and ethanol produced. Depending of the vehicle capabilities, the break-even price of E85 has to be between 25 and 30% lower than gasoline.
caption: Typical labeling used in the US to identify E85 flex-fuel vehicles. Top left: a small sticker in the back of the fuel filler door. Bottom left: the bright yellow gas cap now used in newer models.  E85 Flexfuel badging used in newer models from Chrysler (top right), Ford (middle right) and GM (bottom right).
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Collage US FlexFuel badging", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "150", "Image YResolution": "150", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2010:11:07 22:23:57", "Image Artist": "Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz", "Image Copyright": "2010 Mariordo@aol.com", "Image ExifOffset": "2392", "Image XPTitle": "[67, 0, 111, 0, 108, 0, 108, 0, 97, 0, 103, 0, 101, 0, 32, 0, 85, 0, 83, 0, ... ]", "Image XPAuthor": "Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz", "Image XPSubject": "[71, 0, 77, 0, 44, 0, 32, 0, 70, 0, 111, 0, 114, 0, 100, 0, 32, 0, 97, 0, 110, 0, 100, 0, 32, 0, 67, 0, 104, 0, 114, 0, 121, 0, 115, 0, 108, 0, 101, 0, 114, 0, 0, 0]", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "4754", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6603", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1969", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1362", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}