Ford is road testing 20 E85 Escape Hybrids to see how the flex fuel vehicles hold up under real world conditions. The test vehicle has tremendous upside in drastically reducing petroleum use and cutting emissions.

Ford has made no promises to make production vehicles, and the company is quite frank in describing the technical challenges of designing a vehicle that combines an ethanol-capable engine with an electric motor.

Ford says no company has developed a partial zero-emissions (PZEV) flex fuel vehicle because when the vehicle is using only electric power, the system that prevents vapors from escaping doesn't activate. E85 is also more corrosive than gasoline and requires more powerful fuel injectors and fuel pump.

What Ford should be touting is how little gasoline their E85/hybrid uses. Even after you consider the loss in energy density between ethanol and gasoline, an E85 Escape Hybrid uses just 14 percent of the gasoline as the standard Escape. Being able to drive 500 miles on just over 3 gallons of gas (and 20 gallons of ethanol) would hit home with the energy independence crowd. Convert it to a plug-in hybrid, and we're talking driving all month on ounces of gasoline.

Ethanol continues to put the squeeze on the human/animal food supply, but if cellulosic ethanol and an E85 plug-in hybrid are both developed, we would drastically enhance the sustainability of our transportation.