GM plant celebrates half-mil FlexFuel vehicles produced
GM is further drawing attention to its E85 push by
celebrating a recent milestone in the history of its Janesville Assembly plant in Winsconsin. The plant has produced
its 500,000th E85 FlexFuel vehicle since 2002. Currently GM’s large SUVs are assembled in Janesville and the
plant fits them with the company’s E85-ready 5.2L V8. GM is also trying to raise awareness of E85 by getting owners of older E85-capable vehicles on the phone to remind them of their car’s hidden talent. The company is also replacing standard gas caps on FlexFuel vehicles with special yellow ones because, you know… corn is yellow and ethanol is made from corn. Brilliant.
[Source: GM]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike O. 8:15PM (3/22/2006)
I thought the E85 V8 displaced 5.3 liters, not 5.2...
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Phil 9:51PM (3/22/2006)
E85 is a joke... its temporary fix, not a solution. and on top of that GM is just using it for marketing to get people to link them to "eco-friendly". (BTW i am a GM fan) Biodiesel is the real solution
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Gunnar Heinrich 9:54PM (3/22/2006)
So, can I test drive one of these new GMC E85s at my local GMC dealer?
http://www.automobilesdeluxe.blogspot.com
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Dennis 10:59PM (3/22/2006)
If we took Changing World Technologies (WWW.ChangingWorldTech.com)--see May 2003 Discover article and combined with either Ethanol (www.e85fuel.com) or Biodiesel (www.biodiesel.org). WE WOULD NOT....have to IMPORT ANY OIL !!! Tell the camels to go HOME !!! LET the FARMERS of America become the next OPEC Ministers...and guess What..no more paid out farm subsidies...WIN...WIN...situation!
Wake Up America....before we bancrupt ourselves!!!!
WWW.WNBiodiesel.com check this website out....even Willie Nelson is doing Biodiesel...Go Willie!!!!
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Steve 11:13PM (3/22/2006)
So Phil, I guess that over complicated hybrids are the answer? I still haven't seen a study that shows the effects of the batteries on the environment when the vehicle is dead. That being said, I'm not convinced that they are good for the environment in the long term. But why would Toyota care about that, at that point they have had your money for many years.
Anyway, I'm with you Dennis all the way. I don't get why that hasn't been drummed up even more. We are a country that has watched our farms get turned into tacky cookie cutter nieghborhoods for far too long. Heck right around the corner from my house a farm was just plowed (http://www.bobward.com/pages/occommunity.htm). If E85 became more of a reality farms would become more valiable as a farm rather than a paved yuppie haven. At the same time my Ranger was E85 capable and it was more expensive than regular gas. I guess in time though that would come down.
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Mark 12:40AM (3/23/2006)
I've been an avid GM customer for 26 years. Haven't bought anything else. I have decided GM has no interest in resolving the future woes of this country. They have had plenty of time to put forth the technology within the highly paid engineers minds. Proof of this is there constant lack of listening to the consumers, and with there blinders on making gas gusseling vehicles. The reason why Toyota has increased their market share significantly over the past several years. Might have to move over to Toyotas side.
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shiznannigan 1:21AM (3/23/2006)
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GM has no interest in resolving the future woes of this country... ...and with there blinders on making gas gusseling vehicles. The reason why Toyota has increased their market share significantly...
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Um... the Full-size Chevrolet Tahoe gets about the same mileage as a midsize Toyota 4-Runner, and 4mpg better on the hwy than the Toyota Sequoia. Toyota tends to hide these vehicles while they're filming their "what if the air were cleaner" ads.
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taX 3:08AM (3/23/2006)
I always liked the e85 idea, it is just too bad that I so far never had a chance to get it here in Florida, but I am still hoping. You should consider to replace all the gas caps with the new yellow one to make people aware of the flexibility.
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L.Boat 5:37AM (3/23/2006)
There is no E85 station within 50 miles of where I live. Aside from the problem with availability of E85, there is also the question of economics.
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Bert A 8:23AM (3/23/2006)
Mark, I flat out don't believe you. If you were that loyal you would not say what you say. You would know that 1. GM had the EV-1, who has come close to that? 2. They have hybrids that will cost the customer only $1500 more coming starting this year (VUE and other SUVs), Saturn claims it will be the lowest price with highest highway mileage SUV on the market 3. GM is at least with the best in hydrogen fuels technology. They have paid out over $1 billion (a lot of that to their "highly paid" engineers) towards developing hydrogen fuels.
I can only think of 2 companies (Honda and Toyota, am I missing any?) which offer hybrids and only one vehicle (hybrid version of any of the vehicles) is a hit, the Prius, and I read that sales of those units were down in the last month (my only point is that hybrids haven't proven to be a total long term success yet so GM's scepticalness early on towards hybrids is understandable). GM advertises E85 engines already on the road (they were apparently there before the President of the U.S. said anything recently).
Sorry, my crap detector went off with your story.
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Mark 10:03AM (3/23/2006)
My exact point. General Motors use to be the leader when it came to advanced technology and design. They now show a wait and see attitude and depend on their fellow subsidiaries in Europe to design their sedans and coupes.
Genderal Motors needs to open there eyes and realize we have to depend on ourselves to engineer and design automobiles, automobiles which are efficient and are to the likings of the consumer.
The highest ratio of economically efficient models and number of models in production has to go to Toyota and Honda. General Motors has had the technology for years but have refused to put it into place for fear of a backlash from other industries.
I am the last person who wants the General to be in the prediction it presently has placed itself. Whether you believe my loyalty or not, my emails to GM's management and comments within automotive websites, will hopefully open GM's eyes before it becomes a place in history.
As far as the Prius goes it was a failure several times over, but Toyota kept its faith in their design and development team, and now is rated as one of the most sought after automobiles in its class. Only if GM believes in its own engineers, design teams and workforce, will it come back strong.
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MattK 10:17AM (3/23/2006)
Even Toyota's new Yaris will render its own Prius obsolete. Yeah, what about the polluting batteries? Are we that shortsighted?
http://thearticlewriter.com/autowriter/does-the-yaris-render-the-prius-obsolete/
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Aaron 10:17PM (3/26/2006)
Onfortunatly this is one big problem with the pure ethenol solution:
"The United States uses 380 million gallons of gasoline a day. If we were to replace that entirely with ethanol we would have to harvest approximately four times as much agricultural output as we currently grow for food production."
http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleID.18976/article_detail.asp
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eXotic 11:36AM (3/27/2006)
Can anyone explain me what E85 is?
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Ricardo 4:00PM (4/05/2006)
Aaron, i don't think that as a country, we're going to go 100% without gas vehicles in our grandchildren's lifetime. If GM produces more E85 vehicles, sets up more filling statations (in progress), and ramps up the corn growers to grow more corn, or whatever, the price is bound to stay the same on E85, while alleviating some of the gas prices. Not to mention the hybrids that Toyota and Honda are coming out with, with other automakers joining the bandwagon. It will take time, but everything does.
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Ricardo 4:03PM (4/05/2006)
eXotic, E85 is a blend of 85% ethanol, and 15% gas.
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STEVE 4:37PM (10/04/2006)
You look at what a "third world country" like Brazil has acheived in such a short time span. I am totally shocked that Canada and the U.S. has not followed along. Brazil is practically "fuel independent" now and thier farmers now have another viable crop which puts "food on the table" and keeps their local economy running...much better system than ours where our money goes overseas....
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