1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

Epa testing for 2011 vehicles

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Technical Discussion' started by alfon, Oct 17, 2010.

  1. alfon

    alfon Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 17, 2009
    1,370
    270
    0
    Location:
    seaside, oregon
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    III
    Does anyone know that for this year testing the EPA will be using
    gasoline with a 10% Ethanol Blend as most states, and Oregon is one of them, require the 10% Ethanol Blend all year long.

    It would not be a accurate testing procedure to not take
    the 10% Ethanol Blend into account. I know for a fact, guranteed, that pure regular grade gas without Ethanol will get increased MPG in our Prius.

    I know there are some in this forum who believe that the 10% Ethanol does not take a hit in MPG. If that is the case you do not want to have to walk the distance the extra MPG's you get for an entire tank compared to Ethanol gas blend in our Prius.

    Now I recently read that the Government is considering a 15% Ethanol blend in gasoline, isn't that nice......

    alfon
     
    #1 alfon, Oct 17, 2010
  2. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2005
    12,544
    2,123
    1
    Location:
    SF Bay Area, CA
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    I doubt they'd suddenly change their test procedures. Per The Truth About EPA City / Highway MPG Estimates - Measuring Fuel Economy - Car and Driver
     
    #2 cwerdna, Oct 17, 2010
  3. jburns

    jburns Senior Senior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 13, 2005
    829
    111
    0
    Location:
    Archdale, NC
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    III
    The 15% ethanol blend was approved for all cars 2007 or later. Not sure how they expect to control what goes where but it is the government, so they just pass things and let others sweat the details.
     
    #3 jburns, Oct 24, 2010
  4. bdirwin

    bdirwin Senior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 3, 2006
    36
    0
    0
    Location:
    Phoenix
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    If you think about it though, while you get fewer miles per gallon of "liquid", you are actually using less gas. If you ran pure Ethanol, your MPG would be considerably less (perhaps 35 MPG), but you would not be burning ANY gasoline.

    I'm willing to take a small hit in mileage if it reduces my oil dependency.
    Just another way to look at it. No flames please.
     
    #4 bdirwin, Oct 30, 2010
  5. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2009
    17,123
    10,047
    90
    Location:
    Western Washington
    Vehicle:
    Other Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    But you will be responsible for the burning of a lot of diesel needed to produce that ethanol.

    Ethanol's carbon savings remains a theoretical goal. The terrible energy balance of current production methods does not present a compelling case for ethanol.
     
    #5 fuzzy1, Oct 30, 2010
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)