New Car

We bought a new car today! Well, an almost new car - from 2007. It's black (Martin will be happy) and it's a ford focus flexi-fuel, which means it runs on petrol or ethanol (called E85, which is 85% ethanol and 15% petrol).

For those interested ...
- Of the 4000 service stations in Sweden, there are 1000 selling E85 (and this is quickly increasing). Petrol costs more than E85 and the margin is growing (almost daily).
- Most of the E85 in Sweden comes from Brazil where the ethanol is produced from sugarcane. Ethanol from Brazil is considered the most environmentally friendly in the world. Even so, sustainability criteria will be introduced in Sweden to ensure both environmental and social standards of imported ethanol.
- In the next 5-10 years Sweden will start commercially producing second generation ethanol based on woody feedstocks (yes, trees). As Sweden has vast amounts of plantation forest that can be harvested sustainably, the future is bright for E85 and flexi-fuel cars.