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RFA’s flex fuel hybrid vehicle delivering promising results

The senior vice president of the Renewable Fuels Association says ethanol and electricity can jointly power vehicles today.

Robert White tells Brownfield RFA purchased a 2022 Ford Escape plug-in hybrid vehicle to demonstrate this.

“What we did was use a conversion kit to change or manipulate the liquid fuel side so it was flex fuel,” he says. “So you could use 85% ethanol or no ethanol and go about your way.”

Students at the University of Nebraska’s Husker Motorsports Team assisted with the conversion to flex fuel, making it the world’s first flex-fuel plug-in hybrid vehicle. White says they transported the vehicle to the University of California at Riverside for further testing.

“What we’ve done is emissions testing, fuel economy testing, life cycle analysis. We’ve looked at the comparison to convenience and ultimately the cost of ownership. At almost every turn, the ethanol is able to compete or beat the full battery electric vehicle,” he says.

He says RFA continues to push back on the Environmental Protection Agency’s tailpipe standards.

“A lot of work to do, but we remain confident that the science is on our side and we’ll keep pushing,” he says.

RFA’s flex-fuel vehicle was on display during the 2024 Husker Harvest Days.