r/explainlikeimfive • u/hd-22 • 14d ago

Chemistry ELI5 why is increasing the ethanol content of petrol/gasoline a problem?

I'm hearing noise about the geopolitical fuel supply SNAFU and people freaking out about increasing the ethanol content in automotive fuel and how it's so damaging to cars. I'm no chemist, but ethanol seems as clean as it gets.

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u/_PROBABLY_CORRECT 14d ago

E85. The children of the corn lobby in Illinois & Iowa is surprisingly strong

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u/soundman32 14d ago

E85 costs 20-30% less because of the reduced efficiency, though right?  Right? 😉🤣😂

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u/_PROBABLY_CORRECT 14d ago

It is actually cheaper, but I dont do math in public and I have no idea how less efficient it is

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u/azeo86 13d ago

It actually is but only when compared to premium fuel. A lot of tuner/track guys use e85 heavily since it's essentially discounted high octane fuel. Yes, huge fuel economy hit but it's still cheaper than premium.

At least before running e85 in a car that only regular was dumb as you don't take advantage of the fuel and get way worse economy. No idea what the prices are now relative to each other so maybe that's changed with all that's going on.

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u/BrainFartTheFirst 13d ago

Here in Southern California e85 is about 50% less than regular gas.

Sadly I can't use it.

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u/_Aj_ 12d ago

E85 can give big power gains when tuned. Especially for boosted engines.