ON the day Ford’s UK chairman and managing director Roelant de Waard went to Downing Street to ask for tax cuts for drivers of greener cars, the company announced it has signed up its fifth flexible fuel vehicle (FFV) fleet.

Supermarket chain Morrisons is selling E85 ethanol at 10 of its sites and is now encouraging store managers to choose the Focus FFV for their company cars. The cars give lower fuel economy than petrol vehicles but carry a disproportionately high tax penalty for drivers.

Phil Maud, Morrisons forecourt director, said: ‘Unfortunately, the Focus FFV is taxed according to tailpipe emissions and this doesn’t take into account the environmental benefits of using a plant-derived fuel.

‘We’re standing beside Ford in the campaign to get these cars taxed at the same level as hybrids (currently a 3% discount), reduce the price of biofuels and sort company car tax to remove the disincentive.’

Ford displayed several FFV vehicles at the show, including a Focus Coupe Convertible concept model (pictured below).