FLEXIFUEL vehicles are surely one of the ways to go with alternative fuel technology.
Petrol prices are continuing to rocket and we are forever striving to become greener.
But in most parts of the country you'll have to travel a long way to fill up with one of the alternative fuel's being advocated, bio ethanol.
It's made from UK-grown crops such as wheat and sugar beet.
If you live in the Somerset area, which has several fill-up stations based at Morrisons supermarkets, you are well blessed. There are also a handful in East Anglia but elsewhere they are few and far between.
I have just taken a Ford Focus Flexifuel Ghia down to Devon, in the hope that I could fill up somewhere en-route or while I was out and about.
When you do fill up, it's all something of an anti-climax. The bio ethanol works out at about 2p a litre cheaper than petrol. There's no noticeable difference in performance or economy, but at least you are able to salve your conscience and know you are doing your bit to save the planet's valuable resources.
But because bio ethanol pumps are scarce, it's just as well that Ford's Focus FFV and C-MAX FFV can run on any mix of bio ethanol or petrol in the same fuel tank.
Bio ethanol is a renewable transport fuel which is produced from UK-grown crops and which offers technologically the easiest move towards carbon neutral motoring.
In 1916 Ford Motor Company's visionary founder Henry Ford said: "All the world is waiting for a substitute for petrol. The day is not far distant when, for every one of those barrels of petrol, a barrel of ethanol must be substituted."
He went on to design the first Model T to run on ethanol, or grain alcohol, believing then that oil-based transport fuels did not have a long-term future.
In 2005, Ford was the first manufacturer to market a bio ethanol-powered car in Britain. Ford Flexible Fuel Vehicles are capable of running on bio ethanol where available or petrol in any mix in the same fuel tank.
To date the company has supplied 165 Ford Focus FFVs, mainly to fleets located close to the country's 14 bioethanol pumps such as Avon & Somerset Police, the Environment Agency and National Farmers' Union.
Ford's FFV vehicles are priced the same as their petrol-only equivalents - from £14,345 for the Focus and £14,795 for the C-MAX FFV introduced last year.
Research by Imperial College, London, puts Ford FFV emissions at 99.6g/km when CO2 absorption by crops grown to make bioethanol is factored in - lower than comparable vehicles using hybrid technology.
Now the Formula Ford championship is evaluating the sustainable fuel for its single seater racing cars. Successful trials have proved that bioethanol is suitable for Formula Ford racing cars.
Apparently, over one million hectares of arable land in this country could be turned over to biofuel crops without affecting food production.
Bioethanol processing plants are under construction in Somerset, handling wheat, and in Norfolk, using sugar beet. Bioethanol is currently sold on 13 Morrisons forecourts as an E85 blend, referring to its 85 per cent bioethanol and 15 per cent petrol mix.
E85 pumps are currently in Somerset, Norfolk, Suffolk, Derbyshire, Northants and South Wales.
FAST FACTS
Ford Focus Ghia 1.8 FFV 5dr
Price: £16,112
Mechanical: 125bhp, 1,798cc, 4cyl bio-ethanol engine driving front wheels via 5spd manual gearbox
Max speed: 123mph
0-62mph: 10.3 secs
Combined mpg: 40.3
Insurance group: 8
CO2 emissions: 169g/km
BiK rating: 20%
Warranty: 3yrs/ 60,000 miles, 3yrs paint, 12yrs anti-rust