Wow if that is true.... I'll have to wait for confirmation. I imagine that move whilr hard to believe would be liked my the majority of the treehugging press, for the real truck, guy it would be a bad move.

I had understood while ethanol had more octane it was a false # in the sense that for example 93 octane from reg gasoline would provide much better nrg than ethanol with 93 octane. I thought ethanol had only 2/3rds the nrg of gasoline which is why the range and mpg is lower. For example I watched some auto show on tv the other day where they tested a regular tahoe, a E85 ready tahoe (running E85) and a Hybrid. The regular unit acheived 19mpg, and the E85 did 14... Unless E85 is that much cheaper it don't take too long to figure out what your filling up your tank with. Now if I have to pay more for fuel (net) for my F150 to achieve acceptable power numbers (considering tq & hp) then I don't care how green this is perceived to, if I can get the same or better #'s from a competitor without having to buy E85. Keep in mind E85 is VERY rare up here in Canada so I guess we wouldnt get the power boost? In a Ford anyway...

 

Aint that the truth. Probably will be much sooner than we think, with high gas prices the buying public is warming up to hybrids very quickly. Think I will hold onto my truck for a while

 

I think that everyone should drive big honkin' gas guzzlers. This way people would plan their trips and only drive when they need to. Despite gas being $5.04 a gallon where I am (accounting for a near even Can. & U.S. $), it still only costs me $35-$40 a week to drive my F150. I had a good laugh the other week when I overheard a Prius owner whining about the price of gas, as he topped off his tank to the tune of $25. Which he'll likely drive on for the next 3 weeks. I'll be keeping my truck for a long time, at least until they develop a hybrid/electric/fuel cell/whatever model that can tow and haul as well as my gas model does.

 

The best solution are the diesel electric hybrids...a smaller efficient turbo diesel running in conjunction with an electric motor & a smaller battery pack. Depending on the current power/efficiency demand of vehicle it could run all diesel, all electric or both together. Braking forces are recovered via electric motor & charge battery pack. This is real world technology available today & can be scaled from micro compact cars to pickups to heavier trucks potentially. Hydrogen powered fuel cells are essentailly electric cars without significant batteries....the power is generated by fuel cells. Hydrogen as a day to day fuel
is more of a pipedream and is a long long way off if ever. Producing large volumes of hydrogen takes huge amounts of power....storage, delivery & infrastucture would be a massive undertaking & now you are dealing with a much more volatile/explosive fuel than gasoline. It ain't happening for a long time & we will be burning hydrocarbons in vehicles for a long long time regardless of what the enviro'mental'ist zealots would have you believe.