One of West Vancouver's oldest service stations is now offering up a decidedly more modern fuel.
The 1960s station at 4370 Marine Dr., which has been a Mohawk, Husky and Union 76 franchise over the years, has recently been leased by four entrepreneurs who are now selling E85 under the name Arcade.
You're forgiven if you haven't heard of the ethanol-based fuel, as the nearest station to sell it in Canada is in Ottawa.
Almost all gasoline sold today already has about 10 per cent ethanol but E85 has, you guessed it, 85 per cent ethanol, which is processed from corn products.
The fuel is already wildly popular with the highperformance, souped-up car "tuner" community, including one of the founding partners and North Vancouver resident Amir Nazary. With a higher octane level than gasoline, E85 can give your engine a 20-percent boost in horsepower, said Devin Redlich, coowner. At the same time, the carbon emissions from the tailpipe are about 40 per cent lower.
Nazary and other tuners typically have to drive to a station outside Seattle to fill their jerrycans.
"He didn't want to do that. He felt this is ridiculous. He felt this is a perfectly viable product to be sold in B.C., especially in Vancouver where there's a lot of environmental sentiment where people want to reduce their carbon footprint," Redlich said.
During the 1990s push by the U.S. government for more energy independence, congress offered incentives and mandates for the Big 3 North American automakers to begin selling vehicles that are capable of running on ethanol fuels. Many "FlexFuel" vehicles are being sold from local car lots but, without anywhere local to buy the fuel, dealers haven't been pushing FlexFuel as a feature, Redlich said.
"These people are E85-ready and they don't even know it," Redlich said, "We routinely have people come into our station who have been putting regular pump gas into a flex fuel vehicle for years and years and years. They put one tank full of E85 in and they suddenly realize the way their car was meant to perform."
Others who want to use E85 must reprogram their vehicle's onboard computer, which runs about $500, Redlich said. To take it a step farther, the vehicle can be fitted with an aftermarket fuel injector though that's more for the hardcore enthusiasts, he added.
Expect a tank of E85 to cost about the same as Chevron's 94-octane gas, Redlich said.
But, like any fuel, ethanol fuel isn't without its ethical trappings. Critics argue it literally "burns food" and its production has a larger carbon footprint than petrochemical fuel.
Redlich acknowledged the drawbacks, but said he's never seen any evidence that ethanol production has "moved the needle" on global food prices.
And unlike gas, ethanol is renewable, he added. "You can grow millions of acres of corn every year if you want to and that can go on forever," he said. "There's only so many dead dinosaurs we can pump out into people's gas tanks."
The retro-inspired logo, pumps, colours, and Arcade Station name is meant to endear the new business to West Van residents, who Redlich said can expect full service at self-serve prices.
"We want to distinguish ourselves from the Chevrons and Shells of the world who have great big, flashy signs and pumps that have built-in colour-computer displays and such and it's all selfservice," he said. "If we're going to embed ourselves in the neighbourhood and really make ourselves part of the West Van community, we need to set ourselves apart from that."
That is winning praise from the North Shore Historical Preservation Society which values the site for its West Coast Modern architecture, according to Peter Milller, society president.
Arcade is holding a grand opening BBQ this Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
