Quote:
Originally Posted by JSH
The perfect engine for a flexfuel vehicle is direct injected and turbocharged. Variable boost on the turbo allows the engine to vary the effective compression ratio based on the blend of ethanol.
|
There are already some engines with such feature available on the market, at least here in Brazil.
Quote:
|
So why do flex-fuel vehicles suck so badly in the USA? The answer lies in CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy). Manufacturers in the USA make flex-fuel vehicle to get CAFE credits. The manufacturer gets a 1.2 mpg credit for making vehicle flex-fuel. The fine for not meeting CAFE is $5.50 for every 1/10 of a mpg you miss it by. So a flex-fuel credit is worth $66. In order for it to make sense for a manufacturer to make a flex-fuel vehicle the cost has to be less than $66.
|
The problem with American automakers is their mindset based on mediocrity. Even though I like some old-school American boat anchors, this caught my attention when I first realised so many features which are now becoming widespread on gassers would also be highly desirable on a flexfuel. Well, maybe the fact that ethanol is often pointed out as a regional fuel, most easily accepted by some corn farmer in Nebraska than by a New Yorker, it seems like automakers get even more inclined to resort to it as an excuse to keep delivering mediocre engines with a near-zero cost to implement a flexfuel software and eventually replacing the materials used in the fuel lines even though they won't have any major redesign.