The mpg loss, on the surface, can be disheartening. But if that is all one looks at, they may be missing out. It all depends on the price spread. And fuels have to be compared to similar fuels. Since E85 is a 100 octane fuel and a top level fuel used in the high performance community, it should really be compared to Premium gasoline.
Let's see... according to Gas Buddy for my area, Premium fuel is going for 2.94 a gallon in Newton Iowa. Unfortunately Gas Buddy is not showing E85 price, but my wife filled her Chevy Equinox yesterday with E85 and it was $2 A gallon. So a 94 cent spread.
The Nox seems to average about 22 mpg on E85 for all miles.... city, highway, rural gravel roads, etc. That means on E85, the cost per mile is roughly 9 cents a mile. The best it ever got on premium was about 26 mpg for all miles maybe 27 mpg if the wind was favorable. At 2.94 for premium, that equates to just over 11 cents per mile fuel cost.
No thanks. I will stick with E85 and can easily live with the lower mpg. That 11.2:1 compression ratio 4 banger seems to function much better on E85 or premium than regular fuel it can use and the exhaust has far fewer deposits by using E85. Same for my 6.0 V8 Chevy pickup.