Another Charge for Hybrid FFVs

November 13, 2026

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by Lisa Gibson (Ethanol Producer Magazine) In 2022, Ron Lamberty, then chief marketing officer for the American Coalition for Ethanol, led a project that included traveling over 40,000 miles in a hybrid electric flex-fuel vehicle affectionately named HEFF. Lamberty says the goal was to find out how low the real-world, on-road emissions could be for a hybrid electric vehicle when that hybrid’s internal combustion engine—and the source of its battery charge—was powered by high ethanol blends, namely E85.

HEFF (a used 2019 Ford Fusion with an after-market eflexfuel.com E85 converter) consumed about 1,518 gallons of fuel averaging 71.4% ethanol over 40,007 miles, resulting in tailpipe CO2 emissions of about 200 grams per mile. If HEFF had been able to use E85 consistently on its journey, tailpipe CO2 would have dropped to 176 grams per mile. The figures were comparable to results of a similar test done by Car and Driver on a 2019 Tesla Model 3 LR electric vehicle, and even beat the Tesla’s long-range results in higher-CI electricity markets like Wisconsin and Missouri, which allow up to 260 grams per mile.

“HEFF shows that anyone truly interested in reducing carbon pollution should be interested in flex-fuel hybrids,” Lamberty wrote in a column about the project for Ethanol Producer Magazine in late 2024.

Then, the allure of flex-fuel hybrids was mostly about climate—reducing tailpipe CO2 emissions. Two years later, with ethanol hovering around $1.50 per gallon less than gasoline at the rack, and E85 regularly selling for a dollar cheaper than regular (E10)—why are flex-fuel hybrids still not offered in the U.S.?

Auto industry analysts say consumers are, in fact, very interested in hybrids, but the flex-fuel component is missing from the U.S. market. Reuters reported in mid-September that hybrids are “on a tear,” making up 19% of August 2026 vehicle sales, up from 16% before the Iran conflict began in February. Automakers are capitalizing on this trend, Reuters reported, specifically Toyota, Hyundai/Kia, Ford and Honda.

Kelley Blue Book reports that in the first half of 2026, 22% of potential buyers said they would consider a hybrid vehicle, up from 20% in 2025.

Hyundai, Ford and Stellantis (owner of several auto brands including Jeep, Dodge and Ram) announced earlier this year that they will introduce larger EVs with gas generators, known as extended-range EVs. These new vehicles would presumably be suitable for E15 but not E85.

Finally, Chevrolet announced the launch of what it calls mild hybrid models that can run on up to E100. Stellantis is also launching a Fiat hybrid FFV it calls a “bio-hybrid.” Both vehicles, however, will only be available in South American markets, specifically Brazil, where hybrid FFVs have a growing presence.

“It’s been very frustrating to see the lack of leadership and lack of vision from both the automotive sector here in the U.S. and our policymakers on these topics,” says Geoff Cooper, CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association. “We look at this trend and just scratch our head and wonder why in the world are the automakers not building flex-fuel capability into these hybrid vehicles.”

The Case for Hybrid FFVs
Similar to ACE’s HEFF project, the RFA released a study in 2024 that illustrated the advantages of a plug-in hybrid flex-fuel vehicle over fully electric vehicles. RFA converted a 2022 Ford Escape plug-in hybrid to flex-fuel and ran a 15-month study.

The results showed GHG emissions that rival or outperform that of EVs; lower cost of ownership than that of EVs; and no meaningful loss of fuel economy.

Fast forward to today, with gas prices well over $6 in California while E85 hovers around $2.50 to $3. For a standard 21-gallon tank, that amounts to a savings of up to $74 to fill up.

“You’re paying half the price for E85,” Cooper says. “If you put that in a hybrid FFV that has a high-compression ratio engine and some turbocharging, which most of them do, you are not going to see the kind of fuel economy loss that gave E85 a bad name back in the old days.”

Cooper adds that a hybrid FFV combines the best of both technologies—electrification and a low-carbon liquid fuel—and marries them together in one vehicle.

Soaring gas prices are already incentivizing traditional hybrids, says Lamberty, now ACE's chief strategy officer. “Now, you make those economics even better by making them a flex-fuel hybrid, and they would probably sell.”

But automakers in the U.S. are not incentivized to make hybrid FFVs in the current policy framework, Cooper and Lamberty emphasize.

“It comes down to some bad policy decisions made years ago at the federal level,” Cooper says, adding that hybrid FFV production does come with a modest added cost. “The automaker has no incentive under the current policy framework, to make even that modest investment to add flex-fuel capability to their vehicles.”

The FFV boom in the early 2000s was prompted by compliance credits for tailpipe standards, Cooper says. In 2014, one out of every six vehicles sold in the U.S. was an FFV, with nine major automakers producing more than 2.8 million FFVs, Cooper cites in a 2023 Ethanol Producer Magazine column. Between 2010 and 2014, automakers received substantial credits based on E85 displacing petroleum.

The Obama administration initiated a phase-out of those credits over a decade ago, and the number of FFVs produced has since dwindled precipitously.

“Today, there is no regulatory benefit for an automaker to build FFVs,” Cooper adds. “Policymakers decided 10 years ago that they wanted to shift all incentives to fully electric and remove any incentive for any liquid fuel vehicles.”

Dave VanderGriend, founder and chairman of ICM, which works extensively in the Brazilian market, says numerous factors, chief among them the lack of an FFV production incentive, have stifled hybrid FFV adoption in the U.S.

But intense consumer demand for more affordable fuel options should be incentive enough for an FFV reboot, Cooper and Lamberty agree.

“Currently, hybrids are not being widely promoted by auto manufacturers here in the U.S., but it is coming,” VanderGriend says. “The economics for hybrids are here today.”

“We do think, if over time, automakers see there is consumer demand for hybrid FFVs, they’ll build them,” Cooper says.

For consumers, hybrids are selling now without incentives. “The incentive is the economics of having a hybrid,” Lamberty says.

In fact, Cooper says the top E85 conversion kit makers in the U.S. have hit record sales as consumers realize the savings potential in a $6-per-gallon gasoline market.

Doug Durante, longtime executive director of the Clean Fuels Development Coalition, argues that hybrid FFVs are not the solution to high gas prices. He instead encourages a national high-octane fuel standard that pairs E30 with hybrid vehicles. The idea being that E30 would be compatible with typical, non-FFV engines.

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The Hybrid FFV Boom In Brazil
The hybrid FFV environment in Brazil is much different.

Stellantis’ bio-hybrid launch in South America is part of a record €5.6 billion ($6.3 billion) investment that supports more than 40 new products.

The bio-hybrid will not be available in the U.S., where Stellantis will instead focus on traditional hybrids, battery EVs and extended-range hybrids, the company announced in 2026.

Chevrolet’s Brazilian hybrid FFV launch will include Tracker and Montana models, expected to be available soon.

Brazil is the target market for these new hybrid FFVs, Lamberty says, as the country blends at 32%. “Brazil has two types of fuel: Fuel that has a lot of ethanol and fuel that’s just ethanol.”

About 85% of vehicles on the road in Brazil are already FFVs, he adds.

VanderGriend echoes that conclusion: “The hybrid FFV was introduced originally in Brazil as an efficiency upgrade, so it had a headstart.”

The Market Move
While U.S. automakers could offer hybrid FFVs in response to rising consumer interest, policies to incentivize both production and purchases might also be necessary. “We should be seeing if there’s a way that the federal government can incentivize hybrid and flex-fuel vehicles as much as they’ve incentivized electric vehicles,” Lamberty says.

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And Lamberty adds, “If you’ve got a flex-fuel vehicle, you can always buy the cheapest fuel. That’s the beauty of it.” READ MORE