1. Ethanol contains only a little more than 70% of the energy density as gasoline, and for every 5% increase of ethanol in the blend, drivers can expect to lose 1% fuel economy. If a car takes E85, it’ll most likely use 25% more fuel to drive the same number of miles. How does that make sense to most drivers, even if it’s cheaper per gallon?

2. Ethanol is perceived as bad for fuel systems and the evidence is pretty strong that this is true for small engines. People don’t like having to worry about whether there is an ethanol blend in the gas used for their yard machines. People believe that if it’s bad for their mowers, it must be bad for their cars.

3. Ethanol cannot be blended with gas and then used in pipelines; not even in low blends. At least with biodiesel, low blends can be piped.

4. People realize that this whole ethanol scheme is a bad idea. It doesn’t make sense to pay farmers to grow corn, turn it into an inferior fuel with an inferior distribution system, so that it can be used to put in an inferior engine (spark ignition). There have to be better choices, and there are. We have signs all over my town “100% gasoline; no ethanol”. My Jetta TDI gets 47 mpg hwy. and 46 running B20. The gas version of the Jetta (Jetta 2.5) gets around 30 mpg hwy and a driver could expect to get 28.5 mpg running a blend of E20. So the difference for running the same car on equally-performing engines (diesel versus gas), on equal percentage renewable blend is 17.5 mpg. Percentage wise, the diesel (running biodiesel blend) gets about 61% better hwy mileage than a gas Jetta running the same blend in ethanol.

As for electric cars, I’m all for them, but when I say electric, I think electric motors, not this elaborate scheme of powering by massive, expensive batteries and expanding the electric grid, but with fuel cells using the most dense fuels (diesel, boideisel, and/or natural gas).

The real surprise, however, is that the VW Jetta TDI stands frimly in 2nd place (hybrid and diesel). This is not the trend where I live. Most people in the rural southeast don’t even know that diesel cars are even built for the U.S. You should see the looks I get at the diesel pump, and I’ve seen only three, new diesel Jettas around my home (all ’05s and ’06s), I’ve not seen a single, new Jetta TDI (2009-2010). Those are distinguishable by the blue “I” in TDI. I’ve seen only one in the south, and none in my area, and I’ve not seen a single, new diesel of any other variety; only Jettas and Jetta SportWagens. Conversely, I’m surrounded by Prius 2s and Prius 3s and have seen several, other hybrids.

I would have thought that the little diesel TDI surely towered over all other diesel sales (not including heavy trucks), but I would never have guessed that it more than doubles the sales of the Honda Insight, which is number two for hybrid sales.

Prius sold 27,249 units in Japan in September 2010.

Actually Toyota has got base model Prius which costs only 22K and does not have a cruise control, but they never launched it in US.

-As any physician can tell you, this is frustrating. You can give people excellent technology and information, and you can clearly demonstrate the long-term benefits and provide incentives, but getting people to change their behavior in healthy ways often seems an insurmountable obstacle.