At the dawn of the twentieth century, the future of the automobile was far from settled. Gasoline was but one option among several. Many believed electricity would take the lead, while others, such as Henry Ford, backed ethyl alcohol, or ethanol, as the fuel destined to dominate the newborn century.
Ethyl alcohol offered tangible advantages. It could be produced from corn, sugar cane, or beet, burned cleaner than the crude gasoline of the era, and freed the industry from the fluctuations of imported oil. Henry Ford made it a personal conviction, insisting that the fuel of the future would be of vegetal origin.
The cheapest and most convenient fuel prevailed
However, just as with electric cars, ethanol’s story later took a different turn. The discovery of substantial oil reservoirs in the United States permanently depressed gasoline prices, while Prohibition (1920-1933) effectively rendered alcohol production near-illegal, even for industrial use.
Gasoline, backed by a network of refineries and a distribution system in full expansion, asserted itself. It was cheap and readily available. The public did not need more to embrace gasoline as the fuel for their cars.
Yet, just as electricity is staging a comeback today, alcohol found a new moment of glory in Brazil during the 1970s. Faced with the oil shock of 1973 and an import bill that had become unsustainable—Brazil was then importing more than 80% of the oil it consumed—the Geisel administration launched in 1975 the Proálcool program to promote ethanol as a fuel through local sugarcane production.
Within a decade, cars running on pure ethanol accounted for as much as 85% of new sales in the country, a peak reached in 1985, but the program collapsed almost immediately.
The drop in oil prices and the rise in sugar prices made sugarcane cultivation more profitable for feeding the population than for fuel, and ethanol shortages at gas stations finally eroded drivers’ confidence in that alternative fuel.
It was necessary to wait for the advent of flex-fuel engines in the early 2000s for the country to again use ethanol without depending on a single fuel.
Half a century after Proálcool, France breathes new life into the same idea with “Superéthanol E85,” a fuel composed of 65 to 85% ethanol, i.e., in proportions comparable to what Ford once envisioned. Its taxation nearly fully exempts the ethanol portion of the blend, placing it around €0.88 per liter today, against more than €2.23 per liter for conventional unleaded gasoline and €1.90 for unleaded E10 (10% ethanol).
Its consumption surged by 83% between 2021 and 2022, driven by the public outcry of the Yellow Vest era against fuel prices. That said, this fuel is only compatible with Flex-Fuel engines, or with cars subsequently equipped with an E85 conversion kit (an additional control unit and sensors).
With the exception of Sweden, which between 2002 and 2008 promoted ethanol with incentives and favorable taxation, no other European country truly pursued that fuel. Yet, along with France—which leads Europe with 25% of the continent’s bioethanol production—Germany (16%), the United Kingdom (12%), and Spain (11%) are the largest producers on the continent, despite not actively promoting the use of E85 ethanol.
The ethanol produced is mostly destined for blends in unleaded gasoline 95 E5 and E10 and for export. No other European country today has a superethanol share comparable to France’s 8%. Across Europe, except France, ethanol faces the same taxation as regular unleaded gasoline.
Thus, the story of ethanol as a fuel is not one of a novel idea born with the ecological transition. It is a long-standing wager, launched more than a century ago, twice derailed by economic and fiscal constraints rather than technical ones, and only returning in its original form, with a high alcohol content, where taxation allows it a chance, somewhat like the electric car.
And people decide based on their wallets, not on whether it is the easiest energy, the most ecological, the most efficient, or whether it could drive deforestation, as in the case of Brazilian ethanol. They simply want the cheapest and most convenient energy.
Images | Nebraska Historical Society (colorized), Pexels, Stellantis, Ford
