| For all the criticism lobbied against U.S. automakers, | | | | General Motors, for its part, has already produced |
| there is one area where the American car makers | | | | more than 1.5 million flex fuel vehicles and has |
| take the lead: FFVs. Flexible fuel vehicles [FFV], which | | | | promised to build upwards of 400,000 per year in |
| are powered by a fuel comprised of up to 85% | | | | coming years. |
| ethanol and 15% gasoline, are produced and marketed | | | | Are flex fuel vehicles the solution to all of our |
| by American manufacturers at volumes greater than | | | | problems? No, of course not. However, despite an |
| their Asian or European competitors combined. | | | | average drop in fuel economy of approximately 10% |
| DaimlerChrysler's list includes their Town & | | | | per vehicle, fuel prices are about 30% lower. In addition, |
| Country and Caravan minivans, the Ram pickup truck, | | | | there aren't enough stations serving ethanol yet, but |
| and the Stratus and Sebring sedans. Ford's Taurus, | | | | that is certain to change. |
| Explorer and Ranger are the blue oval's FFVs while | | | | For more information, please visit the Live Green, Go |
| for GM, various pick up trucks and SUVs make up | | | | Yellow for GM's flex fuel site; as well as the American |
| their offerings. Isuzu, Mazda, Mercedes, Volvo, and | | | | Lung Association's Clean Air Choice site; and the Flex |
| Nissan all produce FFVs, while Honda and Toyota do | | | | for the Future web site to learn more about how we |
| not. | | | | can reduce our nation's dependency of foreign oil. |