General Motors Promotes E85 Days of Summer in Miami

U-Gas Opens First E85 Ethanol Pump in South Florida; E85 Ethanol Available for 85 Cents-per-gallon for Limited Time

MIAMI - If the 11,317 owners of General Motors E85 ethanol-capable vehicles in the Miami area refueled solely with E85 ethanol, an estimated 161,671 barrels of oil could be saved annually. And hundreds of thousands of additional barrels of oil could be saved if all owners of flex-fuel vehicles refueled with E85 ethanol.

Ethanol is a renewable fuel that can be made from domestic resources that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Educating consumers about the use of E85 ethanol as an alternative to traditional gasoline is the goal of the E85 Days of Summer tour by General Motors.

Miami is one of seven stops on the E85 Days of Summer tour that runs through the end of this month. The Miami stop will coincide with the opening of South Florida’s first public E85 ethanol pump located at U-Gas, 210 Northwest 79th Avenue, in Miami. CleanFUEL Distribution will be the provider of E85 ethanol for the new pump.

To celebrate the opening, GM and U-Gas will sell E85 ethanol for 85 cents per gallon from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, September 13 and Friday, September 14. E85 ethanol regularly sells for about $2.55 a gallon.

Additionally, the first 75 customers driving a GM FlexFuel E85-capable vehicle will receive a $20 U-Gas refueling card. Drivers of FlexFuel vehicles also will have the opportunity to have a yellow gas cap installed on their vehicle at no charge as a reminder that their vehicles are E85 capable. Stickers inside the fuel door and owner’s manuals also identify whether a vehicle has flex-fuel capability.

Experts from GM and CleanFUEL Distribution will be on hand at the pump promotion to answer questions. A day earlier, on September 12, GM is teaming with Florida International University for a “Preparing for the Arrival of E85 in South Florida” forum to address issues surrounding petroleum-based fuel and alternatives.

“At GM, we believe ethanol has by far the greatest potential of anything we can do over the next decade to actually reduce U.S. oil consumption, reduce oil imports and reduce carbon gas emissions,” said Elizabeth A. Lowery, GM vice president, Environment, Energy and Safety Policy. “That’s why GM is committed to building vehicles that can run on E85 ethanol and has more than 2.5 million E85 FlexFuel vehicles on the road today, with plans to double production by the end of the decade.”

GM E85 vehicle portfolio
For the 2007 model year, GM offers 14 E85-capable vehicle models that comprise an annual production of more than 400,000 vehicles. The vehicles are equipped with a yellow fuel cap that indicates the vehicle can be fueled with either traditional gasoline or E85 fuel.

Availability of E85 Ethanol
According to the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, there are more than 1,200 ethanol fueling stations in the U.S. Visit www.e85refueling.com for station locations.

GM is partnering with government, fuel providers and fuel retailers across the country to help grow the E85 ethanol fueling station infrastructure and increase the availability of the fuel around the country. Since 2005, GM has announced partnerships in 13 states and the District of Columbia to locate more than 250 new E85 ethanol pumps at fueling stations in these areas.

GM’s energy diversity technologies
A recent report by the International Energy Agency predicted that world oil demand will rise faster than previously expected during the next five years while production slips, threatening a supply crisis. The report also said global oil demand will rise an average of 2.2 percent a year though 2012. The share of world oil consumption represented by the developing world, including emerging industrial economies, will rise to 46 percent from 42 percent of global demand by 2012.

Given these demands, it is becoming increasingly clear that oil alone will not supply all of the world’s rapidly growing automotive energy requirements. Producing E85 ethanol FlexFuel vehicles is one part of GM’s strategy to help displace petroleum and reduce vehicle emissions. The strategy also includes improving the efficiency of the traditional internal combustion engine with technologies available today; and developing electrically driven vehicles such as hybrids, plug-in hybrids, fuel cell vehicles and extended-range electric vehicles.