BY 2020, the Swedish Government wants every new car on the road to run on fuels that can be replenished, and one of its car companies is already speeding towards the ambitious goal.
That means fossil fuels such as petrol and diesel will be out and biofuel — ethanol — will be in. Already, Saab has bought into the Swedish mandate, and so have many Swedish drivers. Ninety per cent of the popular Saab 9-5s sold in Sweden this year, for instance, bear Saab's BioPower badge, which signifies it burns some ethanol. BioPower cars seem ubiquitous in Sweden. Eventually, all Saabs sold here will run on ethanol.
For now, so-called flex-fuel cars can run on a mix of petrol, diesel and ethanol, with blends ranging from 10 per cent ethanol to 100 per cent. The Swedish Government has eliminated the tax on renewable fuels, cut sales tax for biofuel vehicles, offered free parking for cars using biofuels, and set aside separate lanes for bio-taxis at airports.
Kjell Bergstrom, Saab's engineer in charge of powertrains (a car's engine and driving mechanism), said a problem with ethanol cars was they had a 25 to 35 per cent shorter travel range than petrol cars. Saab and other car makers hope to close that gap by using ethanol in applications with cleaner diesel, hybrid petrol/electric engines, and turbocharged smaller engines.
Swedish officials have also ruled that the fertilisers used to grow ethanol sources cannot create more pollution than the fuels eliminate.
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