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May
29
Chicago Area E-85 Overpriced?
Filed Under E85, E85 / Alt Fuels, E85 prices, alternative fuels
An E-85 gas pump in Northwest Indiana.
A local news station investigates high E-85 prices in the Chicago area.
CBS 2 News Chicago reports that motorists filling up with E-85 in the Chicago area might not be saving much money because stations are charging so much for the alternative fuel that it doesn’t make economic sense to use.
Reports CBS’ Mike Flannery in “Ethanol is cleaner than gas, but is it cheaper?“:
Ethanol producers collect billions of dollars in subsidies from American taxpayers each year, promising in exchange a home-grown, cleaner and cheaper fuel.
CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery, though, finds that promise to be false, at least here in the Chicago area.
In Wednesday night’s Truth in Politics, he reports on prices in the city and suburbs that cheat consumers who buy E-85 ethanol fuel.
I have to commend Family Express for charging $2.99 / gallon for E-85 over the Memorial Day weekend since it saves consumers money while still letting the fuel dealers make money.
I need to fill up pretty soon, so I’ll probably be driving over to Family Express since their prices were a lot lower than the competition — I just hope it remains $1.00 or so below regular unleaded. I’ll have to check the Alt Fuels price board and the CBOT prices to see what a good price for E-85 should be.
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5 Responses to “Chicago Area E-85 Overpriced?”
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Thanks for the pointer.
The issue is not that E85 “should” be 3.50 because that’s the breakeven point between running gas or E85.
The issue is what does E85 really cost to get to the pump, and what is the station making in cents per gallon?
Hi Buzz,
Family Express’ $2.99/gal E85 (about 73% of the price of regular unleaded priced at $4.09/gal) makes more sense than filling up with E85 at $3.55/gal (about 86%). Until we switch to sugar cane ethanol (or some other biomass product that can produce more miles/gallon), E85 users need to account for the loss of fuel economy.
On my FFV, with the mileage drop I get running e85 it needs to cost no more than 70% what regular gas costs (e10 mandated by law here in Illinois) or I’m spending more per mile. In other words, at $4.00 for gas I won’t buy e85 unless it’s $3.00 or less.
I had a different car when Illinois (Chicago metra area) switched to reformulated gas (government mandate, e10) and I went from 27/33 mpg (city/highway) to 17/21 mpg (city/highway). I bought the FFV this time around in part because it does pretty good, mileage-wise, on the reformulated gas (e10).
Sorry, I meant 75%… But 70% is even better, at $2.80…
Hi Paul,
My minivan is the same way — if I can get E85 for around $2.99/gal when gas is about $4/gal, it makes sense to buy E85 and hypermile when driving around town (watch for the timing of traffic lights, coasting down hills, not always hitting the accelerator, etc). On the highway, E85 does fine once the car gets up to speed.
Right now, it never makes sense to buy E85 from retailers — there’s a big grocery outlet that does this — that keep their E85 within 50 cents of regular unleaded (i.e. $3.99/gal for regular unleaded and $3.49/gal for E85). The E85 - regular unleaded price differential there isn’t great enough to make it work economically. It’s better to just buy regular unleaded gasoline until one can get to a less expensive E85 outlet.
One thing that helps with flex-fuel economy is to mix regular unleaded gasoline with E85 for a E50 or E60 mix.