20 E85 stations to debut in Sacramento area during 2008: report

May 6, 2008

In California, KCRA reports that 20 new E85 stations are planned for the Sacramento market by the end of 2008; currently there is no E85 available in the state capital.

The announcement is the first major expansion for E85 since February, when VeraSun Energy and Kroger announced that they they would open 20 more “VE85″ branded fuel locations in Texas. All the pumps will be located at existing Kroger stores in the Dallas and Houston metro areas.

Kroger Stores debuted E85 at its Michigan locations in January, with an 85-cent-per-gallon E85 promotion that prompted lines of up to 20 minutes for low-cost gas at the Burton store.

Last August, Kroger, VeraSun Energy, and Enterprise Rent-A-Car had announced the availability of VeraSun-branded VE85 ethanol at pumps in 20 Kroger locations in Ohio and Kentucky. Enterprise Rent-A-car said at the time that it would designate its locations in Troy, Cincinnati and Grove City as “VE85/FlexFuel branches,” making available E85-fueled vehicles available for rental. Enterprise said that it is the US leader in flex-fuel rental car availability, with more than 41,000 flex-fuel vehicles in its fleet.

VeraSun, with more than 120 outlets, is the leading E85 retail brand at the present time.