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Yea, cold starts and cold climate is sort of a problem for ethanol.
Here in Finland temperatures can be something like -25C to -20C on winter (and a lot more colder when going north), but I have always got my E85 cars started.. even without pre-heating (not possible always).
Because knocking is not a problem really with ethanol, atleast on fairly well designed and modern engines, I could try some ideas to warm intake air temperature while cruising.
Maybe I could fabricate another inlet for airbox and a sealed flap between cold and hot air inlets (from exhaust headers).. and control it with a cable untill I figure out if it works or not (for fuel economy).
Like atleast Volvo had on their '90's cars atleast, but it was thermostat controlled (and nowadays most are broken = stuck at half way or for the hot side).
Something like 40C instead of 15 to 18C intake air temperature could help. Maybe even more, I don't know without testing.
On a hot summer day over 40C intake air temperatures would probably be normal, since the engine itself heats intake manifold quite well plus the more than 20C outside temperature not cooling much.
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