General Motors to invest $31 million to add flex-fuel capability to its 2.2 liter Ecotec engines

In New York, General Motors will invest $31 million in upgrading its engine manufacturing plant at Tonawanda. The upgrade will make the Ecotec 2.2-liter engines E85-enabled, and will also improve emissions in time for 2009 models. The Tonawanda plant produces 25 percent of GM’s E85 fleet.

GM continues to push hard on promotion of E85 and flex-fuel vehicles as an offset to the imposition of stricter CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards. Every flex-fuel car sold contributes an offset to each car maker’s CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standard, under the new Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) signed last month.
Last month, the energy and environment director for General Motors told the Reuters Global Agriculture and Biofuel Summit that it aims to help 10,000 US gas stations to add E85 pumps by 2011. General Motors assists stations add E85 by locating grant money for conversion and supporting conversions with direct marketing to GM’s base of flex-fuel vehicle buyers.

Recently, the CEO of General Motors, Rick Wagoner, said that the US needs to increase the number of ethanol stations by a factor of 10-15, from 1400 today to as many as 20,000. He added that the company has been working with companies such as Wal-Mart and Target to add ethanol to their fuel distribution services.

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