For Release: August 3, 2007
SAN ANTONIO/AUSTIN – Drivers of FlexFuel vehicles don’t seem bothered by the misconceptions about E85 ethanol – at least not in Texas anyway.
At daybreak on Thursday, Aug. 1, dozens of E85-capable vehicles jammed the parking lot of the HEB Grocery Store off I-35 in Schertz, Texas near San Antonio. All were waiting to fill up on E85 ethanol being offered at the crazy low price of 85 cents per gallon.
It was all part of GM’s E85 Days of Summer Tour, promoting the benefits of ethanol as an alternative fuel.
“I heard it on the radio. They said 85 cents and I couldn’t believe it,” said Roger Guzman of San Antonio. He said he uses his truck for work and sometimes spends in excess of $300 per week on fill-ups.
“I’m on empty. I told my friend to come over, too. He has a GMC.”
“I’ve been using E85 since I got my vehicle,” said Lisa Sepeda of McQueeney, Texas. “There’s only been once or twice that I’ve used regular gas. My husband thinks I’m obsessed with E85.”
Sepeda said she drives out of her way to fill her 2007 Chevy Impala at the Schertz E85 pump at HEB and learned about the fuel from her salesperson at Seguin Chevrolet.
“It’s kind of neat to put two different kinds of fuel in your car,” she said. “I know they say you get lower mileage, but I just think about the price being cheaper. My husband is the one who keeps up with mileage and how the car performs. If there was a big difference performance wise, I’m sure he would say no.”
Ron Newton, also of Seguin, said he is drawn to E85 because of the price as well.
“There’s a slight drop in mileage, but I would say you have enhanced performance. I save about 30 cents a gallon, as far as price,” he said. “As long as there’s that kind of difference, it comes out better running E85.”
Newton, who drives a 2007 Chevy Tahoe, said he first became familiar with E85 ethanol while living in Wisconsin.
“There was a lot of ethanol up there, so we knew what it was and decided to get it here,” he said. “I fill up with (E85) whenever I can, and wherever I can find a station. Luckily I can look on my navigation system, and it will tell me if there’s someone around who has E85.”
Most drivers fueling at the GM/HEB promotion were veteran E85 users already hooked on the fuel, but there were some taking the opportunity to sample ethanol for the first time.
“If it wasn’t for the 85 cents, I wouldn’t be trying it. I mean, you can’t beat that with a stick, for sure,” said Richard Castillo of Spring Branch, Texas.
He said he heard about the promotion from television reports and decided to fuel up his 2006 Chevy Impala.
“I’ll probably keep trying it for a while,” he said. “It is a little cheaper.”
And the promotion won new fans for General Motors as drivers of all brands of E85-capable vehicles filled up and saved money.
“Go GM,” one happy customer in a Dodge Ram yelled as he drove away from HEB, putting smiles on the faces of GM and HEB representatives alike.
The fuel promotion, a partnership of General Motors and HEB Grocery Stores, was the highlight of the second leg of GM’s E85 Days of Summer Tour, which visited Houston last week and remains in San Antonio and Austin through Thursday.
In all, the HEB fuel station pumped more than 1,400 gallons of E85 during the promotion, which lasted only two hours.
Later in the day, GM and its partners from Clean Fuels USA and the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council, traveled to the University of Texas in Austin to participate in an E85 forum at UT’s Center for Transportation Research. Participating in the forum were engineering students, fleet and commercial customers and an environmental reporter from the Austin American-Satesman newspaper.
“I think this was very informative,” said Rob Harrison, deputy director for the Center for Transportation Research. “It is important that we give students the opportunity to learn about topics that are in current discussion.”
Graduate student John Bodenhamer said prior to the E85 forum, he had only heard negatives about the use of ethanol as an alternative fuel source. He said the forum opened his eyes to the positives of consumer use of E85. “I might consider an E85 vehicle,” he said.
The San Antonio/Austin/I-35 Corridor leg of the E85 Days of Summer Tour kicked off on Tuesday, July 31, in San Antonio. Mary Beth Stanek, director of GM Environment, Energy and Safety Policy, spent the day meeting with journalists and setting the record straight on E85 ethanol.
On Tuesday and Wednesday evening, at the San Antonio Riverwalk and on Sixth Street in Austin respectively, the E85 promotional team passed out literature and backpacks to help drum up interest in alternative fuel sources.
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