GM Wants More US Ethanol Fueling Stations

General Motors Co decided to sell vehicles capable of running on bio-ethanol, but the matter of the fact is that pollution levels will not go down until the network of stations dispensing ethanol will be greatly expanded, GM Vice Chairman Tom Stephens said. By 2012, half of GM’s line-up will be able to run on E85.

"GM is spending about $100 million a year adding flex-fuel capability to our vehicles. We can't afford to leave this capital stranded," Stephens said in a speech on Tuesday at the Renewable Fuels Association conference.

According to Stephens, making a car capable of running on E85 costs $70 for each unit. Considering that GM produced 4 million flex-fuel vehicles for the US, the costs are quite important. So GM decided to work with the National Governor's Association and ethanol producers and dispensers to add 350 more ethanol-blend pumps in the United States.

"Today there's 2,200 (ethanol fuel stations) that are out there but that's not enough," said Stephens. "Two-thirds of the pumps are concentrated in 10 states and those 10 states have only about 19 percent of the flex-fuel vehicles that we have on the road," added Stephens. "That's a big problem for us."

The 10 states are all located in the Midwest, heart of corn production in the United States. Stephens said there are about 160,000 gasoline stations in the US, and there needs to be 12,000 or more ethanol stations "to have ethanol fuel available for every one of our customers within about 2 miles of where they live. So, we've got some work to do there to get the additional 10,000 pumps in."