Filed under: Ethanol, Flex-Fuel, Cadillac, GM
GM readies all 2009 Cadillac Escalades for ethanol
2009 hybrid Escalade.
You can put canola oil in a Cadilac. You can almost get an Escalade with a hybrid powertrain. And, now, you will be able to get the behemoth (either the Escalade, the Escalade EXT or the Escalade ESV) with an ethanol-ready flexfuel engine. GM announced today that all 2009 Escalades will be flexfuel capable. This announcement isn't a surprise - is there anyone more gung-ho about living green and going yellow than the General? - but now at least it's official. The flexfuel Escalades are the latest step to GM's stated goal of getting half of GM's U.S. production vehicles flexfuel capable by 2012. GM made the announcement in Atlanta, where 12 new E85 stations opened this week.
Press Release:
Cadillac Escalade Adds FlexFuel Capability for 2009
June 6, 2008 10:16 AM EDT
ATLANTA, June 6 /PRNewswire/ -- All models of the 2009 Cadillac Escalade will be able to run on either ordinary gasoline or E85 ethanol, or any combination of the two, General Motors announced Friday.
And customers will have the fueling choice at no additional cost.
The Escalade, Escalade EXT and Escalade ESV as well as the GMC Denali, join the previously announced 2009 Chevrolet HHR, Buick Lucerne and HUMMER H2 and H2 SUT as additions to GM's industry-leading flex-fuel lineup.
"The success of E85 as an alternative fuel depends on having the fuel readily available and having a range of cars and trucks that can use it," said GM Vice President of Environment, Energy and Safety Policy Beth Lowery. "We will offer more than 15 flex-fuel capable models for 2009 compared with 11 this year."
The latest E85 product announcements coincided with the opening of a dozen new E85 fueling stations in the Greater Atlanta area this week.
"We continue to believe that ethanol used in high blends like E85 offers the best near-term solution to offset increased oil demand," Lowery said. "There are more than 7 million vehicles today that can use E85. We need significantly more stations that offer the fuel."
E85 ethanol (a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline), is a cleaner-burning alternative fuel that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 23 percent compared with gasoline.
GM has committed to make half of its US production flex-fuel capable by 2012 providing the infrastructure is in place. GM built more than 1 million flex-fuel capable vehicles worldwide last year. It is committed to helping to speed sustainable ethanol to market via its alliances with Coskata Inc. and Mascoma Corp., two next-generation ethanol startups that can make ethanol from a range of non-grain sources.
General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), the world's largest automaker, has been the annual global industry sales leader for 77 years. Founded in 1908, GM today employs about 266,000 people around the world. With global headquarters in Detroit, GM manufactures its cars and trucks in 35 countries. In 2007, nearly 9.37 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, HUMMER, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, Vauxhall and Wuling. GM's OnStar subsidiary is the industry leader in vehicle safety, security and information services. More information on GM can be found at www.gm.com .
[Source: GM via Paddocktalk]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
gsolman6 11:21PM (6/06/2008)
Great....So instead of a combined 14 mpg with regular unleaded it will get 11-12 mpg with E85.......What a joke on the consumer and taxpayer who forks over the $0.51/gallon subsidy...........
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Lou Grinzo 11:48PM (6/06/2008)
And I'm sure that both people who buy one will just love it.
Please forgive the snark, but with peak oil emerging onto the scene like an alien erupting out of someone's stomach in, well, Aliens, stories like this one make me shake my head. And post snarky things online.
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prstunt 2:20AM (6/07/2008)
Nice PR stunt GM. But it'll never see the light of day because it simply blows. It's a mediocre technology that isn't even cheaper than gas or efficient as gas.
GM is dumb. I can do a better job than they can and I don't need 20 years of stupid training like theirs.
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jpm100 12:33PM (6/07/2008)
Today, most of the aforementioned subsidy goes into gasoline for the use of ethanol as an additive in regular gas. For what it matter, the check for the subsidy gets written to the gas company, btw.
And gas just jumped to $4. Extracting alcohol from campaign is going to be cost competitive with gas eventually if that trend doesn't slow down.
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Stéphane Dumas 11:43AM (6/08/2008)
With the coming of cellulosic ethanol (then some call "celunol" (or "cellunol"? Google list them both) from swichgrass or wood waste, things could change.
And Toyota will join the ethanol parade with the Sequoia for the 2009 model-year
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/11/15/la-2007-toyota-sequioa-to-get-flex-fuel-option-in-fall-2008/
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Snowdog 3:35PM (6/08/2008)
The only reason GM is on this bandwagon, is that Ethanol is a massive CAFE loophole.
If GM makes the Escalade E85 capable, they multiply the MPG by 6. So then an Escalade counts as getting 70 to 80mpg.
Just another link in the crazy Ethanol boondoggle.
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Murc 10:24PM (6/08/2008)
Lou Grinzo - peak oil? Na, there is enough oil in the earth for at least a half a century more. Its just that we (the US) only produce like 25% of our own oil, meaning the global community decides the prices we pay.
If we drill & refine all of our own oil, the price would be cut in half.
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