Or, alternatively, we could just let automakers make whatever the market demands.
As a consumer, I would like an uncomplicated car that runs on the most cost effective fuel available.
Why should I pay for hardened valve seats and programming and 02 sensors that I do not want, will never use, and do not need? Wouldn’t I be better off with a cheap car that starts every time I turn the key and runs on inexpensive and widely available fuel?
I don’t want E85. If I had a car that ran on E85, and there was a local station that offered it, I would still prefer gasoline, because of the better performance, better stability, and lower cost.
Your car already has those O2 sensors and hardened exhaust seats if it is newer than 1996. Those were mandatory to met tier II bin one EPA regs. Your car’s ecu computer also runs a mixture calculation several thousand times a minute. The open fuel act mandates that the software running that ecu be able to recognize and properly maintain the air fuel ratio for varying density of fuels and also use the existing knock sensors to adjust ignition advances for various octane ratings something you car also already does. No additional cost to the user is necessary. what is necessary is to break the monopoly on a government mandated single fuel namely gasoline. When cars using equipment they already posses can use any fuel with the required minimum octane ratings regardless of source or.density then the competition can enter. Methanol on a btu for btu basis is half the cost of retail petrol can be made from natural gas , garbage,coal,biomass,and synthetic via electrolysis. your car with a reprogram could burn it just fine the fuel lines and seals are already neoprene the only thing needed is software,which the fed gov prohibits aftermarket from doing. My Volvo has a moded firmware it can run on E85,M100,and any mix between it gets almost the same mpg on E85 as E10 because the turbo can push more psi on 116octane ethanol than 87octane petrol. higher effective compression ratio raises the carnot eff of the motor compensating for 1/3 less btu gal. plus I never need fuel.system cleaners e85 is a powerful carbon build up cleaner.most of your retail fuel system cleaners use isopropanol as a solvent btw. E85 In a car that can use its higer octane offers more performance ,cleaner engine parts and here the cost per mile is cheaper than running premium petrol.in the end it is cost per mile not cost per gallons.if I can get 21mph on e85 and 26 on E10 but E10 91 octane is 70 cents more per gal E85 wins in cost per mile.