E85Forum.com

cornhusker · Joined: 15 Nov 2007 Posts: 16 Location: Omaha Nebraska

have any of you folks noticed a wide variance in pricing of e85?

I just today found a 2nd location in town that just started carrying e85. They however happen to be 20 cents higher per gallon then the established carrier across town.

Any experience with this? Was wondering if their pricing at the new store will level off when they begin to sell a bit more of it... but at 20 cents more, I doubt I'll be giving them much of a try.
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erichard · Joined: 14 Aug 2007 Posts: 18 Location: Lakewood, CO

I have a similar situation here in Lakewood. A Shell station carries E85 for about $2.80 while a Phillips 66 down the road has it for about $2.30. That's a pretty big discrepancy, and I don't know why.

cornhusker · Joined: 15 Nov 2007 Posts: 16 Location: Omaha Nebraska

I was thinking that one offered it as a "service", while the other is expecting to recover the cost of the additional pump, and clear a profit over time.... Embarassed

Here we have one (full survice grocery store downtown with a liquor store and meat market, in the Cono section of town) that has it at $2.39 more as an offering to the "hip young green crowd" living in the condos, while the new one (much more profit driven suburban large chain convienence store) has theirs at $2.58.

Since I work near the downtown one, that is the solution for me.

Might have to put a few gallons in my wife's car at the higher price though.
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hotrod · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 566 Location: Colorado

Part of that price difference can be explained by how the stations buy their fuel. If they can tie in with a coop and get a long term group buy price their fuel cost is much more stable and they can undercut a new station that has not set that sort of purchase agreement up yet and is buying fuel on the daily spot prices.

Many of the stations here in Colorado have started pooling their fuel purchases as I understand it and getting a good stable purchase agreement that does not fluctuate nearly as much as the daily spot rack prices do.

Go to the newer higher priced station and tell them their price is too high and let them know what you are paying at the other station. I bet they will tell you that they are trying to negotiate a better pricing deal.

If not tell them you won't buy from them until they drop their prices to a price that is competitive with near by stations.

They will always skim some from the uninformed, but to make a good profit they need repeat customers.

If they need a reason to lower the price mention the lower fuel energy content per gallon and the drop in fuel milage.

Larry

Eric68 · Joined: 01 Nov 2007 Posts: 185

Seems to track 30 cents per gallon less than 87 gasoline around here in West Michigan. Earlier this year it was only 20 cents per gallon cheaper than gasoline.

I find this interesting . . .
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E85 powered 68 Camaro street car
Best ET 10.05 @ 132 MPH

Bow · Joined: 10 Jul 2007 Posts: 26 Location: Houston, TX

Yup, here in Houston, it is always $0.30 cents less than 87 oct...

You wouldn't think the price of a barrel of oil increasing would have much of an effect on E85.. but...

Greed is an evil thing
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Bow

Mike-E85 · Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Posts: 4

Yes, I have also seen a wide variation in E85 pricing. In my opinion the E85 market has not yet matured to the point of being stable. The station I purchase from has E85 at 60 cents less than NL. This station is part of a large chain and I am sure they have negotiated directly with some ethanol producers. There have to be other stations that are purchasing on the open market, such as through the Chicago Board of Trade (do a search on "cbot")

Recently in Minnesota there has been a great deal of concern about the number of ethanol plants coming on line and what affect that will have on the price they get for ethanol. In my opinion having some excess ethanol on the market could be the best overall for the market. It would push the price down, the cost difference with NL would increase, more people would become knowledgeable about E85 and the total volume would increase. Right now E85 is artificially referenced to NL. For the market to really develop E85 must establish its own supply and demand where ethanol producers and E85 marketers are competing E85 to E85 versus competing with NL.

Eric68 · Joined: 01 Nov 2007 Posts: 185

Artificially? Maybe . . . but with ethanol making up to 10% of many gasoline blends it seems demand for ethanol would track with gasoline somewhat. I bet there is many times more ethanol sold as part of gasoline than as E85.

As demand for gasoline increases, demand for one of the ingredients of common NL gasoline also increases.

Just a thought
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E85 powered 68 Camaro street car
Best ET 10.05 @ 132 MPH

UptownSport · Joined: 03 Sep 2006 Posts: 12

It's fixed ~17-20% less than E-10 at Holidays in the twin cities,
namely forest lake, NE Mpls off industrial and 35W, and N Snelling
in St. Paul
A few other stations were very expensive.

dcg9381 · Joined: 06 Nov 2007 Posts: 14 Location: Austin, TX

erichard · Joined: 14 Aug 2007 Posts: 18 Location: Lakewood, CO

rmay635703 · Joined: 29 Oct 2005 Posts: 18

Around here the difference between gas and E85 tends to be between 60 cents to $1. Yes I have noticed a huge difference in price between the $2.30 I paid in Auraville yesterday and the $2.70 a gal here in Wausau. Regular gas is between $3.14 for e19 to $3.24 for gas (no ethanol)

So for me it was about $3.20-$2.30 = 90 cents

I just put 8 gallons of e85 in my craptaskic 2001 dodge magnum 5.2lt 40k miles and it seems to run OK if not a little better. This ram 1500 seems to be a pretty doggy rig. Hardly able to accelerate well on the highway.

hotrod · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 566 Location: Colorado

Here in my area (Colorado Denver Metro area) E85 prices are generally $2.19 - $2.39 / gallon with pump premium at $3.35 ( I don't pay much attention to regular prices because my car needs to run a high octane fuel.

I get 20 mpg highway on the E85 so it is about equivalent cost wise to getting 30+ mpg on pump premium.

Larry

mtbottle · Joined: 14 Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Location: West Virgnia

I agree that pricing of E85 varies considerably. There is a lot of factors at play. Some oil companies do not want it at all. There are now 1383 stations offering E85. Only 60 are offered by name brand stations. The rest is from independents.

No doubt, there are middle men and vendors that are gouging. When you consider that the spot price of ethanol is 55 cents less than gas, and there is also a 51 cent tax credit, plus some states offer a state credit, then E85 should be selling about 80 cents or even more less than regular gas.

Click on this link. I currently believe that Indiana has some of the best E85 prices. Wisconsin and Colorado is tops too.

http://e85prices.com/
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Duane Combs

AdioSS · Joined: 31 Oct 2007 Posts: 21 Location: Kilgore TX 75662

I wish a local station would start carrying E85. Wal-Mart has E10 now. The nearest E85 station is over 100 miles away.
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