Ford's Sue Cischke says entire U.S. fleet should be able to burn E20

Even as it moves toward electrification, Ford continues to support burning ethanol in more and more vehicles in the coming years. Ford's group vice president for sustainability, environment and safety engineering, Sue Cischke, reaffirmed the company's belief in the biofuel – especially the cellulosic kind – in an interview with Automotive News. Cischke said:

This is a huge country, and we have a lot of natural resources and a lot of the waste that that we could convert to energy. We shouldn't squander that. ... It takes 10 years to turn around the car parc. Now it's even longer. With the recession, people are holding on to their cars longer. So if you want to do something 10 years from now, you better start planning today.

As for specific plans, Cischke said all vehicles in America should be E20-capable (E20 is fuel that is 20 percent ethanol and 80 percent gasoline) and that half of the vehicles should also be able to burn E85. Given the problems the government is having approving even E12 or E15, getting all the way to E20 will be quite a stretch. No time like the present, eh?

[Source: Automotive News – sub. req.]