Flex-fuel SUV vs. gas-electric hybrid: the surprising oil comparison

In any conversation about efficiency or energy consumption, few would believe that a sport utility vehicle could be considered superior to a gas-electric hybrid car.  If your goal is to burn less oil, however, you should choose the SUV – specifically a flex-fuel model running on E85.

To travel a year’s worth of miles, a Prius, for example, may consume 300 gallons of gasoline (15,000 miles @ 50 mpg).  To travel that same year’s worth of miles, a Tahoe, for example, may consume 1000 gallons of fuel (15,000 miles @ 15 mpg) – but if the SUV runs on E85 for those miles, it consumes only 150 gallons of actual gasoline (15% of the fuel is gasoline, 85% is renewable ethanol).  The hybrid car in this example consumes twice as much oil as the ethanol-powered SUV.

The future will likely hold a variety of ways for all of us energy-consumers to cut our fossil fuel habit, but here is an important point that often gets overlooked – ethanol is here today as a clean replacement for gasoline from petroleum, and higher ethanol blends like E85 are the fastest way to slash the oil consumption in your daily driving.