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Corn growers to Ford: bring back Flex-Fuel vehicles
Missouri Corn Growers Association Executive Director Bradley Schad says Ford Motor Company’s Flex-Fuel vehicles should make a comeback.
“As corn growers are filling up their vehicles in their communities, they don’t have the option to be able to fill up on E85 and U.S. farmers should have the chance to fill up on their own product.”
The Missouri Corn Growers Association and more than 20 other state corn groups, alongside the National Corn Growers Association, sent a letter to Ford Motor Company in mid-April asking them to produce Flex-Fuel vehicles again, including the F-Series pickups.
The company started phasing out flex fuel vehicles with the 2024 model-year F-Series trucks.
Schad tells Brownfield “if there are regulations they need changed to be able to help, work with us, don’t work against us.”
He says there are a few different options the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can take to help vehicle manufacturers.
“Give Flex-Fuel vehicle credits back to auto makers. It’s not a tax credit, it’s actually a Corporate Average Fuel Economy or CAFE credit that gives them the ability to help meet the standards put forward by CAFE,” he says. “Some of the other regulations required to go through is the testing on both E10 and E85. As far as equipment concerns, that’s one of the things Ford and other OEM manufacturers have said is a challenge when you have to go through the exact same testing again. It just costs more money and those costs get passed onto the consumer.”
The letter says American-grown ethanol has many benefits and at a time when farm families are navigating uncertain markets, rising production costs and shrinking global demand, it’s essential to maintain diverse fuel choices that support the economy.
Flex fuel cars should be standard on all gasoline cars and trucks by 2030. E-85 will loosen the grip on our dependency on foreign oil and give a better economic outlook to our farmers of this nation.