Ford's biofuel heritage on display at Eden Project's Sexy Green Car Show

Visitors to the Eden Project's Sexy Green Car Show will see vehicles spanning Ford's rich biofuel heritage – a 1920s Ford Model T, the latest Ford Focus flexifuel vehicles and a Formula Ford racing car.

All these can be driven on bioethanol, a renewable transport fuel which is produced from UK-grown crops and which offers technologically the easiest move towards carbon neutral motoring.

In 1916 Ford Motor Company's visionary founder Henry Ford said: "All the world is waiting for a substitute for petrol. The day is not far distant when, for every one of those barrels of petrol, a barrel of ethanol must be substituted." He went on to design the first Model T to run on ethanol, or grain alcohol, believing then that oil-based transport fuels did not have a long-term future.

In 2005, Ford was the first manufacturer to market a bioethanol-powered car in Britain. Ford Flexible Fuel Vehicles are capable of running on bioethanol where available or petrol in any mix in the same fuel tank. To date the company has supplied 165 Ford Focus FFVs, mainly to fleets located close to the country's 14 bioethanol pumps such as Avon & Somerset Police, the Environment Agency and National Farmers' Union.

Ford's FFV vehicles are priced the same as their petrol-only equivalents – from £14,345 for the Focus and £14,795 for the C-MAX FFV introduced last year. Research by Imperial College, London, puts Ford FFV emissions at 99.6g/km when CO2 absorption by crops grown to make bioethanol is factored in – lower than comparable vehicles using hybrid technology.

Now the Formula Ford championship is evaluating the sustainable fuel for its single seater racing cars. Successful trials have proved that bioethanol is suitable for Formula Ford racing cars. Formula Ford hopes to become the first junior motorsport category to go green in 2008 when it matches the blue oval's leadership position on bioethanol road cars by introducing the fuel on the track.

Dirk Dens, Ford's European Flexible Fuel Vehicle sales and marketing manager, said: "The Eden Project is the ideal venue for the launch of Britain's biggest green car show. This event recognises the public's increasing interest in alternative fuel technology and Ford is showcasing bioethanol-capable Fords spanning 80 years for road and track."

Eden Project's Sexy Green Car Show runs from March 30 to April 15. See edenproject.com for more information.