Finally, someone from Detroit disses hybrids.

finally, someone admits that ethanol is the way to go until the true alternative fuels get here… never mind he works for the only big company that has millions invested in e85…
hybrids SUCK!

Building E85 supporting engines is cheaper and easier than adding an electric motor to a production motor or replacing that electric motor when it fails at 50k-100k miles. E85 and biodesiel helps support US agriculture and US business rather than foreigners too…..

I wonder how much energy is required to make a gallon of Ethanol. Wikipedia has a good article on switchgrass that says it requires 45% more fossil fuel energy than the ethanol fuel produced from switchgrass. I’m surprised some republican hasn’t edited that fact out yet, they’re probably too busy having their heads up Bushes ass to read and notice it. There’s a similar problem with hydrogen that needs to be worked out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switchgrass

If you look at the EPA annual PDF file you can see that other engines when they run on E85 get significantly lower fuel economy than on regular gasoline.

Is there a real attempt for manufacturers to provide green motorvehicles to the buying public? I think not. We have the technology available. Whats the point of Manufacturers eg “Smart” or Toyota to manufacture hybrid efficient vehicles and then try to sell them at ridiculas prices to the public. Most manufacturers are seen to be trying to develope green less gas guzeling vehicles for a market place that is fueled by consumer suspicion with the same manufacturers undermining alternative technologies for fear of making their own industries obsolete
If anyone is going to make inroads to cheap efficient vehicles we will have to look to the emerging economies whoes infostructure is not compromised by a complete radical development to lead the world in transport solutions. Get ready its comming!

If you have been watching the prices on E85 they are rapidly approaching the price of 87 octane gasoline. Couple that with the fact that you get significantly less fuel mileage (nearly 20% less on some vehicles) it may not be the best solution…yet. I like the idea of using a renewable resource and mostly eliminating the need for foreign oil, but as for right now it has a long way to come before I say convert every vehicle in the country.

You can have your cake & eat it too…Have an E85 hybrid.

Bull Sh_t. The farmers who get checks from each and everyone of us just for getting out of bed in the morning (the only ones that have to get up early are dairy..) don’t even use E85 in their tractors that you and I buy for them. The ‘cheapest food in the World’ is a joke … and this ‘Grown here – used here’ is a crock.

jim

Bob Lutz is a joke. An arrogant joke who likes to hear himself talk. Don’t listen to his pompous, sour-grapes, Toyota-hating talk. Hybrids might be overrated, but so is Bob Lutz.

Lutz is a tool…he’s just bitter GM didnt jump in on the hybrid craze. What does an auto manufacturer care about what people use to power their cars? And the whole “if there is demand for full size SUVs – we will supply it” remark is absolute proof that he and GM dont give a crap about the environment. If Lutz really wanted to change the world, start producing hybrids like toyota or ford or maybe…just maybe stop supplying pos SUVs that get 10-15mpg. The people who keep buying this crap arent from the coastal areas of the US…try explaining hybrids to a midwest mom and you can see why heavily discounted gas guzzling 2+ ton SUVs are still selling.

Well, I don’t agree that full size SUVs are POS’s, and frankly, I don’t like the socialist, hypocritical hippies who live on the coasts. Some people need the large SUVs and some people want them, and they’re entitled to drive them if they want. However, you are right that Lutz is bitter that GM didn’t jump in on the hybrid movement. But he’s bitter because he’s envious of Toyota’s success with them. He’s still relunctant to join the movement because he (and the rest of GM) have an overblown sense of arrogant American pride and Japanese dislike, so he has to find another way for GM to emphasize in fuel-saving vehicles and his way is ethanol.

E85 in our area is $.40 cheaper than regular unleaded. You do get approx 20% less economy with E85, but it makes sense and will continue to be a viable option that will grow in it’s widespread use. I agree that it is not the only solution. But I’d rather be paying the guy in a seed corn hat on his head than the guy with w/a turbin. I believe that biodiesel, electric and hydrogen hybrids need to be developed more. GM is missing out completely by not utilizing electric technology.
Post #8 you are an idiot, don’t post that kind of garbage, you have no clue about the challenges the the family farmer faces in their lifetime. My family was/is a fifth generation of family farmers. I had to leave and pursue other career options so my brother could eek out a living on our midwest family farm and all the while work at another part-time job to suplement his income. My great grandfather, my grandfather and probably my dad did/will work everyday on the farm until they die. They never took a handout from anyone. Nobody ever bought us a tractor. We earned it from hard work. 12-18 hours a day, six days a week. Tell me a day you went hungry cause you couldn’t go to a grocery stocked with thousands and thousands of products that are made from the sweat of a farmer’s brow. The farmer gets pennys on the dollar for the actual selling price of the finished product.

Post #12 shouldn’t be quite so hard on post #8. Government policies that reward large industrial farming giants with millions in subsidies have made economic conditions terrible for the family farm while gouging the taxpayer. However its not farmers that are getting their pockets stuffed from our tax money, but farm industry executives and financial institutions. That said, E85 does have real issues in widespread use, including loss of mileage and power, and questionable production efficiencies. Also – does sweet grass hurt the soil over time? Beyond those immediate issues, there is a long term moral question, do we want energy crops competing with food crops? The population of the US and world is growing, and good crop land is being overrun and used up. Lutz is just trying to push for federal subsidies and tax breaks in an area that will benefit GM and help its image. BTW – post #11 should consider that the hypocritical socialist hippies living on the coast subsidize the hypocritical socialist (though in denial) red states with their tax dollars…

Sorry, E85 is lame. It costs nearly as much energy to create the energy, as you get out of it. And if you’re doing logic, getting the entire nation on E10 would do more good than getting 10% of the nation on E85. The latter is far more a pipedream than the former.

In truth, you want real alternatives; coal sand/shale offers big benefits for the U.S. independence play. Gas from coal even more. Getting the U.S. to go more diesel would have a far bigger impact — if it wasn’t for California, we’d probably be further down that path using a lot less transportation fuel. But the watermellon eco-morons and corn lobby have the public duped and going for E85 instead, it sounds clean (for those too stupid to do math on production losses).

So make the logical decision and produce E85 vehicles for mainstream car buyers and also make E85 hybrids for the fringe element that insists on a hybrid.

I have been running E85 on my 94 Fleetwood Brougham with the LT1 now for 2000+ miles.

I can go anywhere between 60-100 miles MORE for ever $60 I spend on fuel when comparing E85 to gasoline. E85 is definately a better way to go. Plus 3-5% more HP to boot.

Brazil doesn’t import any fuel, and they run exclusively on Ethanol, E85-E90. They make it from sugar cane. We can’t seem to figure that out. In India, they run all their cars on CNG.

We can grow more corn (north and midwest) and sugar cane (in the south) and reduce our dependance on oil. Don’t kid yourself, the demands for oil is ever increasing. China will continue to use more and more.

GM has the right idea, start making vehicles using alternative fuels vs making hybrids that cost way too much and don’t deliver the promised mpg. Now, making a C/K1500 truck that is hybrid, DOD and E85 would be the overall best combination for a more modern fuel efficient vehicle.

As I get my E85 tune dialed in, my next work is on DOD for older cars that will help even more increase my fuel economy. I’m not going to sit idly by paying such high prices for fuel. And forget wasting so much money BUYING a new car when I have an older car that is much less expensive to drive.

I would like to see ALL state and federal road taxes removed from E85 in the US to spur up use of E85 and encourage new Ethanol plant production. And for companies like GM and the others to step up and increase sales/production of E85 capable cars in states and locations that have E85 current for sale. Market the vehicles there.