2008 Corvette
Indy Pace Car
For immediate release
GENERAL MOTORS AND E85 ETHANOL
General Motors and the automotive industry as a whole have reached a pivotal moment in history. With global demands for petroleum continuing to rise and more regulations focusing on CO 2 emissions, GM has established a strategy to market a variety of vehicles that help reduce the use of petroleum and decrease greenhouse gas emissions.
Although GM is pursuing several technologies, in the near-term GM believes ethanol has the greatest potential to displace petroleum. Ethanol is cleaner than petroleum, adaptable to the current refueling infrastructure, domestically produced and requires little change in consumer behavior.
General Motors has more E85 ethanol-capable vehicles on the road than any other manufacturer, with more than 3 million just in North America. Meanwhile, in Europe GM’s Saab brand offers the best-selling E85-capable vehicle – the Saab 9-5 BioPower. In Brazil, more than 95 percent of GM’s vehicles are FlexPower-enabled, allowing the vehicles to run on 100-percent ethanol, as well as gasoline.
GM believes so strongly in the benefits of E85 that the company has extended its leadership role beyond vehicles and is working with government, academia and industry to promote supply and availability of the fuel, as well as public awareness. In the U.S., GM has played a significant role in raising awareness, and has helped to locate more than 300 new E85 fuel pumps at refueling stations in 15 states.
GM is also working with key stakeholders to help advance alternative processes for creating ethanol. In January 2008, GM announced a significant partnership with Coskata Inc. of Illinois.
Coskata’s breakthrough technology affordably and efficiently makes ethanol from practically any renewable source with a carbon feedstock, including garbage, old tires and plant waste. Its process produces ethanol for less than $1 a gallon (USD), about half of today’s cost of producing gasoline, and also addresses the issues most often raised about grain-based ethanol production. GM is expected to receive the first ethanol from Coskata’s pilot plant in the fourth quarter of 2008 and will use it in test vehicles at the GM Proving Ground in Milford, Mich.
GM is working hard to make E85 ethanol a viable fuel source for the mass market. There is still much work to be done, but great progress has been made and GM is committed to working with its partners and other stakeholders to build on that momentum and continue to advance the potential of ethanol.
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Contact:
Alan Adler
GM Biofuels Communications
Phone: 248-857-4218
Cell: 313-319-8486
E-mail: alan.adler@gm.com