WITH petrol prices edging towards £1 a litre, alternative fuels are back in the spotlight and car makers are increasingly looking at biofuels as a cheaper, greener choice than petrol and diesel.
Biofuel is already big news in Sweden where thousands of motorists are switching to bioethanol, a renewable fuel produced from agricultural crops and forest by-products. It is 40 per cent cheaper than petrol at the pumps, costing 55p per litre compared to 80p per litre for unleaded petrol.
Unlike petrol, the consumption of bioethanol does not raise atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, the 'greenhouse gas' that is blamed for global warming. This is because the emissions released during driving are balanced by the amount of CO2 removed from the atmosphere when crops are grown for conversion to bioethanol.
Now, an eco-friendly Ford Focus, powered by a mixture of bioethanol and petrol, is being tested on UK roads. Called the Focus Flexi-Fuel Vehicle, or FFV, it is being given initial trials ahead of a full scale test involving a fleet of 400 FFV Focus models next year.
Although there is no official UK "pump price" for bioethanol, it is significantly cheaper than petrol.
Next year's full scale trial will be carried out in Somerset where the bioethanol-fuelled vehicles will be tried out by Somerset County Council, Wessex Grain, Avon and Somerset Police and Wessex Water - all members of the Somerset Biofuel Project.
Wheat harvested in the county will be used to produce the bioethanol. The cars will be able to refuel at five new refuelling points convenient to where they are based.
Ford is the first major manufacturer to market a bioethanol-powered car in Britain and is sole vehicle provider to the project.
Already other rural economies have expressed an interest in setting up a bioethanol infrastructure - using local crops such as sugar beet to produce the ethanol.
In Somerset, Wessex Grain is planning a new bioethanol production plant next to an existing grain storage site in Henstridge.
The facility will be able to convert 340,000 tonnes of wheat into 131 million litres of ethanol a year at full capacity from 2007. In the meantime bioethanol powering the Focus FFVs arriving next year will be supplied by Wessex Grain from crops grown locally and processed elsewhere.
Paul Thomas, Ford of Britain managing director, says: " With the Flexi-Fuel Ford Focus we are offering the performance and handling of the UK's favourite car with the option of filling up with bioethanol as the fuel becomes more available. We believe this will happen as more and more vehicle fleets - and eventually private buyers - come to see the benefits of this renewable fuel."
The 1.8-litre Focus FFV offers an overall 70 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions compared to the same petrol-only model and can run on either a bioethanol blend of 85 per cent ethanol/15 per cent petrol or petrol in the same fuel tank in any mix.
Priced at £14,095, the Ford Focus FFV delivers 125PS and fulfils Euro 4 emission standards.
It has already been a tremendous success in Sweden where it already accounts for 80 per cent of new Ford Focus sales. That success is largely due to the widespread availability of E85 fuel - 85 per cent ethanol/15 per cent petrol - at filling stations.
Use of biofuel cars is even spreading to the car rental business in the Scandinavian country. Car rental giant Avis has just taken delivery of 200 examples of Saab's new 9-5 2.0t BioPower model and is to purchase a further 200 in the autumn.
Saab says it has 2,500 orders for the Biopower model from dealers in Sweden where customers are queueing to enjoy the benefits of cheaper and greener fuel.
Words: Chris Russon & David Whinyates