Back in 2007, the company SAAB hired the world’s renowned tenor Plácido Domingo in promotion and to support driving solutions based on bioethanol, one of the world’s most exciting and effective ‘green fuels‘.
Placido Domingo, with the help of the Environmental Ministry of Spain, has used a Saab 9-5 BioPower for his daily activities, thus contributing to obtain a greater quality of the air that we breathed in the cities.
Domingo considers himself as an “environmentally friendly” person and demonstrates this commitment by choosing a Saab 9-5 BioPower for his daily moves during his stay in Spain, showing that by driving a Saab BioPower it is possible to take care of the air quality that we breath in big cities such as Madrid.
What is bioethanol?
Bioethanol is a completely renewable and sustainable alternative fuel source. When bioethanol is mixed in high volumes with low volumes of petrol, a potent yet environmentally friendly alternative fuel called bioethanol E85 is created. This eco-friendly fuel can reduce by up to 70% the typical emissions of fossil carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the greenhouse gases widely believed to contribute to global warming.
Bioethanol is available in various blends, most commonly E5, E10, E85, E100. The E stands for bioethanol and the number denotes the percentage of bioethanol in the blend, so E85 is composed of 85% bioethanol and 15% petrol.
Saab BioPower is a flexi-fuel engine. It can run on bioethanol E85, petrol or any mixture of the two. The engine automatically detects what’s in the tank and adjusts accordingly. Because Saab’s turbocharging technology and engine management systems make it possible to take advantage of bioethanol’s higher octane rating, an impressive 20 per cent gain in brake horse power (bhp) and 16 per cent growth in torque can be enjoyed when the car runs on E85 compared to when running on regular petrol.
