CHICAGO -- General Motors is touting the addition of 26 additional E85 dispensers to stations in the Chicago area through partnerships with Shell Oil Products US and VeraSun Energy Corp. The collaboration is part of a broader, national GM campaign to boost the use and awareness of E85.
To promote E85 and vehicles during the Chicago Auto Show, several major Chicago buildings will be illuminated in yellow lights to symbolize the corn used to make most U.S. ethanol; and street teams will randomly reach out to Chicagoans February 10-12 and 17-19 with giveaways [image-nocss] that promote GM's new Live Green Go Yellow E85 campaign.
The E85 partnership and marketing campaign are designed to encourage greater E85 use and showcase GM's E85 FlexFuel vehicles, which can run on any combination of gasoline or E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline). GM has 1.5 million flexible-fuel vehicles already on the road. It has nine models that are E85-capable, and plans to add more than 400,000 E85-capable vehicles to the fleet in 2006.
Brookings, S.D.-based VeraSun, which said it is the nation's second-largest producer of ethanol, announced the availability of VE85 at 20 Gas City stations in the Chicago area. VE85 is VeraSun's branded E85. As part of the initiative, GM will promote the availability of the fuel with consumer and dealer outreach. The collaboration is similar to one VeraSun and GM entered into last May in the Sioux Falls, S.D., area.
These initiatives are important to the nation on various levels and are clearly in line with the president's path toward energy independence, said Bill Honnef, VeraSun vice president of sales and marketing.
Shell will participate in a test pilot with GM to gauge consumer interest in alternative fuels by monitoring behavior at the pump. Shell will supply E85 refueling pumps at six stations in Chicago, and GM will market the availability of those stations to its customers and dealers.
In early January, GM announced a joint demonstration project with the state of California, Chevron Technology Ventures and Pacific Ethanol. And as part of its broader objective to promote E85 awareness and use, GM has partnered with ethanol champions such as the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition (NEVC) and the Governors' Ethanol Coalition (GEC). With the GEC collaboration, GM has loaned E85 flex-fuel vehicles to 28 states and organizations so that they may use them to educate the public and promote the benefits of using ethanol.
GM also will leverage its OnStar technology in the E85 promotion effort. Subscribers needing help locating an E85 station can contact an OnStar advisor, who will provide the nearest station's address, city and phone number or full route support. There are currently 420 E85 stations in OnStar's database, with plans to update the database six times a year.
Last month, GM announced a consumer education and advertising campaign in Washington, D.C., aimed at promoting the benefits of E85 and GM's flexible-fuel vehicle leadership, and encouraging consumers to actively promote E85 in their communities. Live Green Go Yellow ads broke during the Super Bowl XL broadcast and continue throughout the year with print, web and broadcast media components.
Some owners of GM FlexFuel vehicles will receive yellow fuel caps to remind them that their vehicles are E85-capable; later this year, all new GM FlexFuel vehicles will be equipped with yellow fuel caps at the factory.
Meanwhile, Ford Motor Co. said it will announce today a plan to increase the number of fuel stations in Illinois and Missouri offering ethanol-based E85 by a third this year.
A Ford spokesperson told the Associated Press that the company will join with VeraSun to make corn-based ethanol more available. David Reuter said Ford wants to increase the availability of the altfuel because Ford will produce 250,000 more vehicles this year that run on it.
Bill Fleischli, executive vice president of the Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association/Illinois Association of Convenience Stores (IPMA-IACS), said gas stations that see the need to sell E85 are selling it. He said the association supports E85, but that the dispensers are expensive to put in and motorists must decide to buy it even though current gasoline blends with 10% ethanol get better gas mileage.
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