Brentwood, England - The first Ford Focus Flexi-Fuel Vehicle (FFV) has taken to the roads of southern England as part of a plan by a Somerset Biofuel Project to use locally grown wheat to produce ethanol for a fleet of 40 test cars.
The full fleet will be running by March, 2006 for use by project partners Somerset County Council, Wessex Grain, Avon and Somerset Police, Wessex Grain and Wessex Water to counter the rising cost of petrol that, in the UK, is heading towards £1 (about R11.70) a litre.
Ford is the first major manufacturer to market a bio-ethanol car in Britain and will be the sole vehicle provider for the project. The cars will be able to refuel at five points close to where the four fleets are based.
The biofuel will be 85 percent ethanol / 15 percent petrol, though the cars will be able to use normal petrol should they be out of range of the five stations. Apart from saving on oil imports, the Fords will produce only 30 percent of the global-warming carbon dioxide of a normal car - taking into account the carbon dioxide absorbed by the wheat as it grows.
In Sweden, where 80 percent of Focus models sold are FFVs, bio-ethanol is almost half the price of petrol and the Somerset project will draw on the Swedes' experience of establishing regional bio-ethanol distribution networks.
Ford hopes the Somerset pilot will stimulate wider interest in the FFV and bio-ethanol; other rural economies have already expressed interest in setting up their own bio-ethanol infrastructure using crops such as sugar beet.
The Somerset bio-ethanol plant will be built next to an existing grain storage site to convert 340 000 tonnes of wheat into 131-million litres of ethanol a year when it reaches full capacity in 2007.
That's enough for 2.4-million fill-ups by an average family car and, if my math is correct, sufficient to power about 73 000 family cars for a year at an average of nine litres/100km.
Until then grain grown by Wessex Grain will be processed elsewhere and returned as fuel.
Paul Thomas, Ford Britain's managing director, said: "Ford is going to lead in the alternative fuel market also but our customers should not have to make any compromise for green motoring.
"The biofuel Focus has all the performance and handling of a normal car."
- The Ford Focus FFV costs £14 095 (about R165 000), delivers about 94kW and conforms with Euro 4 emission standards.