Four Things to Know About E15

Popular Mechanics ^ | 2/13/2013 | Ben Wojdyla

[NorthMountain]

At gas stations that use blender pumps (a single spout that dispenses all octanes) you'll have to purchase at least 4 gallons of E10 to insure any E15 in the hose is diluted to safe levels in your fuel tank.

Every place I have seen E15 and E85 for sale, they are dispensed though different hoses from the E10 blends.

[NorthMountain]

The lower energy per liter (or BTU value) - mean that the fuel cost savings (which almost nobody actually sees anyway) is lost in the increased consumption.

I have a Ford Ranger with a flex-fuel engine. Testing for a month revealed that in my case, the smaller cost per gallon of E85 was almost completely offset by fewer miles per gallon. Cost per mile was about 2 cents less with E85 than with E10. I consider that not worth the hassle or the hit to range.

[TheBattman]

Interesting results. In the three vehicles we have owned that were E85 compatible:

2008 Dodge Ram 1500 17mpg/11.9mpg
2008 Chevrolet Impala 28mpg/18.5mpg
2014 Dodge Grand Caravan 24mpg/17.1mpg

Or an average of about 30% lower mpg running E85 (hand calculated, not onboard computer).

If regular unleaded (E10 or less) is $2.50 per gallon - an average 300 mile week would cost $31.25. The same miles with E85 would require a price per gallon of $1.80 in the Grand Caravan to “break even”. That is a difference of 28%

When we had the Impala and the Ram, and E85 was just starting to be seen locally - the price was running about 40% cheaper - so was worth it. But as people began buying it, the price difference closed to about 15-20% - making it MORE expensive to run (plus the inconvenience of more frequent fill-ups).

[NorthMountain]

Within the precision (or lack thereof) of our measurements, your results track with mine. The change in price structure is also similar. E85 in my area is now more expensive relative to E10 than it was when it was introduced.