There was a time, not too terribly long ago, when Ford offered a variety of flex fuel options in its vehicles, which enable those vehicles to run on regular gasoline or a blend of gas and ethanol, including E85, the later of which is typically less expensive on a per-gallon basis, though it also results in reduced fuel efficiency as well. However, higher ethanol blends have also been touted as one way to help reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil, and they’re also big business for corn farmers in the U.S. Thus, those same farmers are a bit concerned about Ford’s decision to move away from flex fuel, in general.
Ford somewhat quietly began discontinuing its flex fuel options recently – most notably, in the refreshed 2024 Ford F-150. It’s unclear why the automaker opted to make such a move, but it raised enough alarms among U.S. corn farmers that many of them – along with Missouri Corn Growers Association CEO (and farmer) Bradley Schad – wrote a letter to The Blue Oval recently expressing those concerns, according to Successful Farming.
“Farmers want to be able to use E85 and we can’t do that with new models,” Schad said. “We want to use a fuel we produce ourselves, but without FFVs on the market, that opportunity is being taken away. The cost to add flex fuel technology is around $100 in the factory, and when you’re looking at the price of a new truck, that’s a small price to support American-made fuel.” Aside from cost-cutting measures, it’s also possible that changing CAFE credits played a role in Ford’s decision to nix flex fuel capability from its vehicles.
“Starting in 2014, the CAFE credit program for FFVs started to wane, and by 2020 the credits disappeared,” said Robert White, senior vice president, industry relations, and market development for the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA). “In 2015 we saw the peak of FFVs being produced – 80 different models. Despite all the things that were said about farmers and societal benefit, when there was no money coming in from the back end they started reducing the amount of FFVs almost in tandem.”
Comments
Making fuel from food is a bad idea.
How much fuel is used in cultivating, planting, harvesting, and transporting ethanol? Subsidizing ethanol production to lower the pump price of E85 was never a sound practice.
The current E10 corn gas is garbage. It reduces economy, screws up our small power equipment, and raises the price of our food (corn). We are the only country i know of that burns our food for fuel. It was a bad idea and it’s time to get rid of it once and for all.
Well stated!
I own Iowa farmland and no one of which I am aware uses E85. Farmers work on very narrow margins and farming equipment is scary expensive. MPG losses using E85 typically range 5-7 MPG and any savings cannot be penciled out with cost savings at the pump in a pickup that gets 15-17 MPG on non-Ethanol fuel. Small engines are not popular in a farm work truck which is needed for towing; grain, seed, fertilizer, etc. It’s all about BTUs and although Ethanol has significantly higher Octane than gas, it has fewer BTUs and why many farmers purchase diesel pickups although that’s another purchase with questionable ability to pencil out.
Fuel from food. Very little corn (the major source of Ethanol) is used for food. Most goes to feeding animals or shipped overseas.
In my mind, the major reason for Ethanol is every gallon produced and used in the U.S. is one less gallon imported. Yes, we can be energy independent but currently are not.
Ethanol mandates are a subsidy to farmers and have survived as long as they have because of farm-state political considerations.