Sweden’s Saab leads drive to ethanol

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 toward that ambitious goal.

That means fossil fuels with limited supply, such as gasoline and diesel, will be out and that agriculturally produced biofuel — ethanol — will be in. Already, Saab Automobile Global has bought into the Swedish mandate, and so have many Swedish drivers. Ninety percent of the popular Saab 9-5s sold this year here, for instance, bear Saab’s BioPower badge, which signifies a car that burns some ethanol. During a recent drive through Sweden they seemed ubiquitous. Eventually, all Saabs sold here will run on ethanol.
For now, so-called flex-fuel cars can run on a mixture of gasoline, diesel, and ethanol, with mixtures ranging from 10 percent ethanol to the currently popular E85, which is 85 percent ethanol, to 100 percent ethanol. In Sweden, the government has eliminated the tax on renewable fuels, making them cheaper than regular gasoline, cut sales taxes on biofuel vehicles, offered free parking in cities for cars that use biofuels, and set aside separate lanes for bio-taxis at airports.

“We need a closed circle of energy use,” said Kjell Bergstrom, the engineer in charge of powertrains — essentially the engine and driving mechanism of all cars — for Saab’s owner, General Motors Corp.

Bergstrom’s “closed circle” refers to the plants — cellulose in wood and forestry byproducts, sugar cane, switchgrass, corn, and other crops — that use photosynthesis in the growing process to help recycle harmful carbon dioxide.

One problem with cars fueled by ethanol is that they have a 25 to 35 percent shorter travel range than gas-powered ones, Bergstrom said. Saab and other automakers hope to close that gap by using ethanol in applications with cleaner diesel, hybrid gasoline/electric engines, and turbocharged smaller engines, which develop more power than even some of the V-8s and even V-6s so popular in the United States.

The Volvo Car Corp., Sweden’s other big auto manufacturer, has not disclosed formal plans on biofuels, as yet, but at this fall’s Frankfurt International Auto show, plans for flex-fuel and hybrid cars are expected to be revealed.

Boston Globe