E-85 and EPA rating

[zpiloto]

There was an article in the local paper today about E85. All the normal BS that comes with it. But this caught my eye. "Environmentalist charge that auto makers have specifically made their SUV compatible with ethanol so they can claim better fuel economy on their gas guzzlers and meet goverment fuel economy thresholds, even through most SUV drivers continue to use standard gasoline.
According to Consumer Reports, the government will rate a 2007 Checy Tahoe that can run on E85 at 35 MPG rather than it's standard 21 MPG. That's even though ethonal has a lower energy content: A tahoe's driving range decreases to 300 miles on a tank of E85 compared with 440 on gas. So why the higher rating? The goverment assumes a flexible-fuel vechicle runs on E85 half the time, and for that half, it takes into account only the 15% that is gasoline.
There is 1 E85 gas pump to serve Austin, TX a city of over 700,000 and a lot of SUV's.

[thisisntjared]

damn, where did you hear this? i have no heard of anyone rating the 07 tahoe at 35mpg...

[tomauto]

it must be a type-o on their part...its more like 15 mpg

[omgwtfbyobbq]

2007 Chevrolet Tahoe 1500 2WD
8 cyl, 5.3 L, Auto(4), Gasoline or E85
Gas 16 21
E85 12 16

[tomauto]

sweet..I'll take 10 of those.

[JanGeo]

some of the twisting going on is that it get 35mpg of Gasoline but it burns 5.666 gallons of ethanol with that gallon of gasoline. meaning it really goes 5.25 miles per gallon of E85. The electric cars were doing this for a while when they plug in they didn't count the electric from the grid.

[zpiloto]

Originally Posted by omgwtfbyobbq

2007 Chevrolet Tahoe 1500 2WD
8 cyl, 5.3 L, Auto(4), Gasoline or E85
Gas 16 21
E85 12 16

I went to the EPA website and these numbers are correct for the 2007. I don't know what goverment agency consumer reports is talking about. The power of the press. I guess that's why you don't believe everything you read. I'll keep an eye out but I bet there is no correction of that fact.

[rh77]

I've been looking at the fuel economy guides for years, even as a kid (yeah, I'm a dork). Anyways, I noticed some trucks had the exact same engine but considerably lower gas mileage.

I searched the "code key" to see what "E" meant. Turns out, it was Ethanol, and in some cases LNG/CNG.

-RH77