Vehicles Running E85 Corn Ethanol Have 30 Percent Lower CO2 Emissions than the All-Electric Tesla Roadster, Study Finds
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Florida, Biofuels Digest has found that cars running on E85 corn-based ethanol, at the proposed new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, will generate 30 percent lower CO2 emissions over an average car lifetime than a Tesla all-electric sports car using coal-fired power. … The analysis also determined that the Tesla will create 21 percent higher CO2 emissions than a car running conventional gasoline (with up to 10 percent ethanol content), at the proposed CAFE standards. … E85 saves an average of 6 tons of CO2 emissions over the average life of a vehicle, when utilizing corn ethanol, and up to 36 tons of CO2 when running on cellulosic ethanol derived from waste biomass.
… (A)n all-electric Tesla owner will save $4,674 in energy costs over the lifetime of the vehicle by paying less for power than liquid transportation fuel, but pay $12,000 in additional cost of a lithium ion battery (Tesla’s battery replacement charge).
The US Department of Energy recently provided a $465 million low-interest loan to Tesla to produce an all-electric sedan Model S. Production of the vehicles will commence in 2011. Gas2.org has stated that it believes the Tesla Model S will rate 4 mpKwh to the Chevy Volt. If that is the case, the federal loan to Tesla, which will empower the production of 20,000 sedans, would increase US CO2 emissions by up to 76,000 tons based on the metrics in the Digest’s analysis, compared to the emissions for 20,000 flex-fuel cars running E85 corn ethanol. READ MORE and download study and resource materials.
