For Release: July 24, 2007
Chevrolet engineers visit Houston to increase awareness and promote the use of E85 ethanol and flex-fuel vehicles
HOUSTON – If the 50,000 owners of General Motors E85 ethanol-capable vehicles in the Greater Houston area refueled solely with E85 ethanol, an estimated 714,285 barrels of oil could be saved annually. Hundreds of thousands of additional barrels of oil could be saved if all owners of flex-fuel vehicles refueled with E85 ethanol.
Ethanol is a renewable fuel that can be made from domestic resources that helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Educating consumers about the use of E85 ethanol as an alternative to traditional gasoline is the goal of the E85 Days of Summer tour by General Motors.
Houston is the first of seven stops on the E85 Days of Summer campaign that runs through the end of September.
In Houston, where the average cost of a gallon of midgrade gasoline was $2.85 as of July 18, there are 12 E85 ethanol fuel pumps within 100 miles of the city. At the Kroger station located at 1801 S. Voss St., GM will sell E85 ethanol for 85 cents per gallon from 7 to 9 a.m. on Wednesday, July 25. Additionally, the first 100 customers driving a GM FlexFuel E85-capable vehicle will receive a $25 Kroger refueling card. Yellow gas caps, stickers inside the fuel door and owner’s manuals identify whether a vehicle has flex-fuel capability.
Also, at 10 a.m. Tuesday, local news reporters are invited to participate in a media roundtable at the Doubletree Hotel Houston Downtown to discuss the environmental and energy diversity benefits of E85 ethanol. Experts from General Motors, the Texas Corn Producers, Kroger, Clean Fuels USA and EPIC also will address the growing availability of E85 and provide facts that dispel many of the myths about this biofuel.
“At GM, we believe ethanol has by far the greatest potential of anything we can do over the next decade to actually reduce U.S. oil consumption, reduce oil imports and reduce carbon gas emissions,” said Elizabeth A. Lowery, GM vice president, Environment, Energy and Safety Policy. “That’s why GM is committed to building vehicles that can run on E85 ethanol and has more than 2 million E85 FlexFuel vehicles on the road today, with plans to double production by the end of the decade.”
GM E85 vehicle portfolio
For the 2007 model year, GM offers 14 E85-capable vehicle models, with an annual production of more than 400,000 vehicles. The vehicles are equipped with a yellow fuel cap that indicates the vehicle can be fueled with either traditional gasoline or E85 fuel.
Availability of E85 Ethanol
According to the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, there are more than 1,200 ethanol fueling stations in the U.S. Visit www.e85refueling.com for station locations.
GM is partnering with government, fuel providers and fuel retailers across the country to help grow the E85 ethanol fueling station infrastructure and increase the availability of the fuel around the country. Since 2005, GM has announced partnerships in 13 states and the District of Columbia to locate more than 250 new E85 ethanol pumps at fueling stations in these areas.
GM’s energy diversity technologies
A recent report by the International Energy Agency predicted that world oil demand will rise faster than previously expected during the next five years while production slips, threatening a supply crisis. The report also said global oil demand will rise an average of 2.2 percent a year though 2012. The share of world oil consumption represented by the developing world, including emerging industrial economies, will rise to 46 percent from 42 percent of global demand by 2012.
Given these demands, it is becoming increasingly clear that oil alone will not supply all of the world’s rapidly growing automotive energy requirements. Producing E85 ethanol FlexFuel vehicles is one part of GM’s strategy to help displace petroleum and reduce vehicle emissions. The strategy also includes improving the efficiency of the traditional internal combustion engine with technologies available today; and developing electrically driven vehicles such as hybrids, plug-in hybrids, fuel cell vehicles and extended-range electric vehicles.
General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), the world’s largest automaker, has been the annual global industry sales leader for 76 years. Founded in 1908, GM today employs about 280,000 people around the world. With global headquarters in Detroit, GM manufactures its cars and trucks in 33 countries. In 2006, nearly 9.1 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, HUMMER, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall. GM’s OnStar subsidiary is the industry leader in vehicle safety, security and information services. More information on GM can be found at www.gm.com.
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CONTACT(S):
Pete Barkey
GM engineering communications
Office: 586-492-3878
Cell: 586-850-3569
E-mail: pete.barkey@gm.com
Craig Eppling
Office: 972-443-2970
Cell: 972-768-3102
E-mail: craig.eppling@gm.com