Flexible-fuel vehicle Totally Explained

Everything about Flexible-fuel Vehicle totally explained

A flexible-fuel vehicle (FFV) or dual-fuel vehicle (also sometimes called only flex-fuel) is an automobile that can typically use different sources of fuel, either mixed in the same tank or with separate tanks and fuel systems for each fuel. A common example is a vehicle that can accept gasoline mixed with varying levels of bioethanol (gasohol). Some cars (see bi-fuel vehicle) carry a natural gas tank making it possible switch back and forth from gasoline to natural gas.

History

The first flexible-fuel system installed in a vehicle was the Ford Taurus (1999).

Terminology

Bi-fuel vehicles have separate tanks for gasoline and the gaseous fuel.
Dual-fuel systems supply both fuels into the combustion chamber at the same time in various calibrated proportions.

Flexible-fuel vehicles in Brazil

Since the oil crisis in the 70's, Brazil has been selling ethanol as a fuel. Car manufacturers modified gasoline engines to support ethanol characteristics (Changes are on compression ratio, amount of fuel injected, replacement of materials that would get corroded by the contact with ethanol, use of colder spark plugs suitable for dissipating heat due to higher flame temperatures, and an auxiliary cold-start system that injects gasoline from a small tank in the engine compartment to help starting when cold) and have been selling ethanol powered cars since then. However, flexible fuel technology started being developed only on the end of the 90's. The flexible fuel car is built with an ethanol ready engine and one fuel tank. The lambda probe, used to measure the quality of combustion in conventional engines, is also required to tell the ECU which blend of gasoline and alcohol is being burnt. So, the controller regulates the amount of fuel injected and spark time: fuel flow needs to be decreased and also self-combustion needs to be avoided when gasoline is used (because ethanol engines have compression ratio around 12:1, too high for gasoline). Those cars can run with arbitrary combinations of gasoline and alcohol (can use both fuels sold in Brazil -- ethanol or gasoline with a blend of 20-25% ethanol - pure or blended in any proportion).
   In May 2003 Volkswagen built for the first time a production flexible fuel car, the Gol 1.6 Total Flex. Chevrolet followed two months later with the Corsa 1.8 Flexpower, using an engine developed by a joint-venture with Fiat called PowerTrain.
   As of 2005, popular manufacturers that build flexible fuel vehicles are Chevrolet, Fiat, Ford, Peugeot, Renault,Volkswagen, Honda, Mitsubishi, Toyota and Citröen. Flexible fuel cars were 22% of the car sales in 2004, 73% in 2005, and 75% and 90% rates are estimated for 2006 and 2007.
   There's another type of flexible fuel vehicle that isn't uncommon in Brazil. Those are the cars able to switch from gasoline to natural gas. The term "flex-fuel", however is never used to describe those cars; instead, they're called bi-fueled vehicles or tri-fueled if they're built with an ethanol-gasoline flexible fuel engine (and tetra-fueled if they can run on pure gasoline). These vehicles are always adapted in specialized houses after they're bought. In many capitals, natural gas shares a small part of the fuel market with gasoline and ethanol. It has the advantages of having government incentives for cars with such systems, like annual tax reduction, and being the cheaper cost-per-mile in the country. The disadvantages are a slight reduction of engine power, the small number of gas stations that have this fuel available, having the lowest mileage and the space needed for the cylinder (normally one or two) installation, normally taking up a good amount of space in the trunk.
   Trucks and pickups are mostly diesel powered and there's no project on conversion to some kind of flexible fuel system. Instead the tendency is to replace regular diesel with bio-diesel. The currently allowed mixture is 98% diesel and 2% bio-diesel. The mixture of 95% diesel and 5% bio-diesel will become a requirement only in 2013.
   FIAT has introduced in 2006 the FIAT Siena Tetra fuel, which can run on 100% ethanol, E25 (Brazil's common gasoline mixture of 75% gasoline and 25% ethanol), pure gasoline (not available in Brazil) and natural gas.
   California automobile distributor ZAP, has agreed to be the exclusive North American distributor and has pre-purchased 50,000 cars from Brazilian automotive maker OBVIO!. The first models scheduled to go into production are the flex-fueled 828 and 012 in 2007, soon to be followed by the 828E and 012E equipped with electric drive systems. Models are expected to be available in Canada and the United States in late 2008.

Flexible-fuel vehicles in Europe

For a long time Ford Taurus was the only flexible-fuel vehicle sold in Sweden. It was later replaced by Ford Focus. In 2005 Saab began selling its 9-5 2.0 Biopower (joined in 2006 by its 9-5 2.3 Biopower), and Volvo its S40 and V50 with flexible-fuel engines. In 2007, Saab also started selling a BioPower version of its popular Saab 9-3 line. The Saab-derived Cadillac BLS will also be available with E85 compatible engines in 2008.
There are also plans of selling E85 fuel, and then some flexible-fuel vehicles, in other European countries:

- In October 2005, the Ford Focus FFV

became the first flexible-fuel vehicle to be commercially sold in Ireland. E-85 is available throughout a limited number of Maxol service stations in the Republic. Redesigned Ford C-MAX FFV may be sold there in 2007.

- Ford offers the Focus (all three models) since August 2005 in Germany. Ford is about to offer also the Mondeo and other models as FFV versions between 2007 and 2010. - Renault and PSA (Citroen & Peugeot) announced to start selling FFV cars from summer 2007.
The Koenigsegg CCXR is currently the fastest and most powerful flexible fuel vehicle with its twin-supercharged V8 producing 1018hp when running on biofuel (compared to 806hp on 91 octane (US) unleaded gasoline).

List of currently-produced flexible fuel vehicles

Worldwide

Ford offers vehicles worldwide that use E85 (different models, depending on the country).

2009

2.2L & 2.4L Chevrolet HHR

2008

2.7L Dodge Avenger

2007

Impala

5.3L Chevrolet Silverado

4.6L Ford Crown Victoria (2-valve, excluding taxi and police units)

5.4L Ford F-150

5.3L GMC Sierra (LMG V8)

4.6L Lincoln Town Car (2-valve)

4.6L Mercury Grand Marquis

4.7L Dodge Durango

4.7L Dodge Ram Pickup 1500 Series

4.7L Chrysler Aspen

4.7L Jeep Commander

4.7L Jeep Grand Cherokee

4.7L Dodge Dakota

3.3L Dodge Caravan, Grand Caravan and Caravan Cargo

2.7L Chrysler Sebring Sedan

2006

3.0L Ford Taurus sedan and wagon (2-valve)*

4.6L Ford Crown Victoria (2-valve, excluding taxi and police units)

5.4L Ford F-150 (3-valve. Available in December 2005)

4.6L Lincoln Town Car (2-valve)

4.6L Mercury Grand Marquis

2004 - 2005

4.0L Explorer Sport Trac

4.0L Explorer (4-door)

3.0L Taurus sedan and wagon (2-valve)

2002 - 2004

4.0L Explorer (4-door)

3.0L Taurus sedan and wagon

2002 - 2003

3.0L Supercab Ranger pickup 2WD

2001

3.0L Supercab Ranger pickup 2WD

3.0L Taurus LX, SE and SES sedan

1999 and 2000

3.0L Ranger pickup 4WD and 2WD

3.0L Taurus LX, SE and SES sedan Many 1995-98 Taurus 3.0L Sedans are also FFVs
Note: * denotes fleet purchase only

Europe

Citroën C4 1.6 BioFlex

Ford Focus FFV, Focus C-MAX

Koenigsegg CCXR

Peugeot 307 1.6 BioFlex

Saab 9-5, Saab 9-3

Volvo C30 1.8F FlexiFuel, S40 1.8F FlexiFuel, V50 1.8F FlexiFuel, XC60 (concept), V70 2.0F FlexiFuel, S80 2.0F FlexiFuel

United States

Chevrolet Avalanche, Silverado, Suburban, Tahoe (all 2007 and 2008 models, some 2002-2006), Impala 2006 and later 3.5L, Monte Carlo 2006 and later 3.5L, S-10 Pickup

Chrysler Sebring, Chrysler Town & Country, Chrysler Aspen

Dodge Caravan, Durango, Grand Caravan, Ram Pickup, Stratus, Avenger, Dodge Dakota

Ford Crown Victoria, 2006 F-150, 1999-2000 Ranger, Grand Marquis, 1999-2001 Taurus, 2002-2004 3.0L Taurus sedan and wagon, 2004-2005 3.0L Taurus sedan and wagon (2-valve), Sport Trac XLT, Mercury Grand Marquis, Mercury Mountaineer, Lincoln Town Car, Mercury Sable

GMC Sierra, Yukon, Yukon XL

Isuzu Hombre

4.7L Jeep Commander, Jeep Grand Cherokee

Mazda B3000 (1999, 2001-2002 models)

Mercedes-Benz C-Class: W204 platform: C300 RWD automatic 3.0L (2008); W203 platform: C230 2.5L (2007), C240 2.6L RWD automatic (2005), C320 3.2L (2003-2005)

Nissan Titan

Brazil

Chevrolet: Celta, Classic, Corsa, Astra, Vectra, Montana, Meriva, Zafira, S10

Citroën: C3, Xsara Picasso

Fiat: Mille, Palio/Palio Weekend/Siena/Strada, Punto, Doblò, Idea, Stilo

Ford: Fiesta, EcoSport, Focus

Honda: Civic, Fit

Mitsubishi: Mitsubishi Pajero TR4

Peugeot: 206, 307

Renault: Clio, Mégane, Scénic

Toyota: Toyota Corolla VVT-i Flex and Fielder

Volkswagen: Gol/Parati/Saveiro, Fox, Kombi, Polo, GolfFurther Information

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