Automakers are wasting time by pumping up E85 -


A n ethanol quiz for all fans of corn-based fuels:
"Which is the better use of ethanol?"
(A) In Iowa, a man is taken to the hospital with a blood alcohol level of 0.72, some nine times the legal limit and double the amount it normally takes to kill a person. According to press reports, the patient -- a worker at an ethanol processing plant -- decided to drink the stuff and see what happened.
(B) In Detroit, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. toss ethanol capability into every car and truck they can in an effort to appear environmentally conscious.
The answer is obviously "B." Drinking ethanol will get you fired and likely kill you. But putting ethanol technology in cars and trucks is merely a waste of time and resources.
What sells?
The marketing behind E85-capable vehicles is compelling: Ethanol burns cleaner than pure gasoline, comes from established technology and is a renewable resource helping wean us off foreign oil.
The reality of E85 is less compelling: you can't buy it anywhere, it burns faster than gasoline and it's more expensive than gas because you have to fill up more often. Not surprisingly, ethanol hasn't spurred the groundswell of support garnered by, say, the Toyota Prius.
To be blunt, I'd wager bass cannons have sold more cars than ethanol.
But GM and Ford keep pumping corn as the great grainy hope, cheering louder as market share grows smaller and the imports create a cleaner image for themselves by selling hybrid technologies that save people money with every tank.
More importantly, hybrids make people feel good without inconveniencing their lives. They can still live 50 miles from work and turn up their noses at public transit, yet still look down on people driving SUVs. Ethanol vehicles, meanwhile, force you to drive 50 miles out of your way to fill up with it. And since it doesn't say hybrid, they'll still sneer at you for driving a guzzler.
Last call for ethanol
Promises are made that ethanol will catch on as more corn is pounded, drenched and rotted into fuel and more E85 pumps are opened across the U.S. But will it come in time?
Honda is working on hydrogen fuel cells, natural gas cars and advanced hybrids. Toyota is making more off hybrids than Ford and GM make selling automobiles. And the Europeans, including DaimlerChrysler AG, are prepping clean diesels for North American sale.
By the time ethanol is feasible, the world will have moved on to something better. And Motown will abandon it to chase another bizarre initiative, say, steam-powered trucks that run on charcoal. And guys at ethanol processing plants will be stuck with oceans of useless fuel.
Well, almost useless.
Mike Hudson is a freelance writer and editor at automotive Web site Edmunds.com. He can be reached at mhudson@edmunds.com.