At last year's Geneva Motor Show, Bentley declared it would get its fleet to the equivalent of 120 g/km of well-to-wheel CO2
emissions by 2012. One of the keys to that will be the use of biofuels,
primarily ethanol. At the Detroit Auto Show this week, Bentley board
member Stuart McCullough declared that the company would debut its
first flex fuel car at the
Geneva Motor Show
in March. McCullough also confirmed that the entire Bentley lineup will
be flex-fuel capable by 2012. Since all of Bentley's cars are
turbocharged, they should be well suited to running on the high octane
ethanol. By tuning the engines for ethanol, Bentley may even be able to
overcome most of the efficiency deficit that normally aspirated engines
experience with ethanol. Whether running on ethanol will really make
Bentleys get the equivalent of 120 g/km is debatable, but at least they
won't be using as much petroleum.