Data released by the Iowa Department of Revenue1 (IDR) shows that retail sales of E15 in Iowa reached a record high of 410.10 million gallons in 2025, up 60% (153.35 million gallons) from 2024. Figure 1 shows the continued upward trend of E15 retail sales since 2015. E15 retail sales made up 27.2 % of all combined sales of ethanol blends including E0 (pure gasoline) in 2025 compared with 17.2% in 2024 and 0.1% in 2015 (Figure 2). The sales of E85 have fluctuated during the last decade with an average share of 1.3% of total retail sales. In 2025, E85 sales declined 20% to 24.03 million gallons compared with the top sales last year (30.01 million gallons2). The share of E10 sales, relative to total retail sales, declined from 84.7% (1.32 billion gallons) in 2015 to 57.7% (870.72 million gallons) in 2025.
Iowa total sales of all ethanol blends combined declined 3% during the last decade, from 1.34 billion in 2015 to 1.31 billion in 2025; however, there have been changes in the sales of different ethanol blends throughout the last ten years. The total volume of “pure” ethanol used in all ethanol blends sold grew 16%, from 144.14 million gallons in 2015 to 167.76 million gallons in 2025 (Figure 3), reflecting the effect of the increasing sales of E15. Pure ethanol used in the E15 blend increased from 0.35 million gallons in 2015 to 61.51 million gallons in 2025, up 61.17 million gallons. At the same time, pure ethanol used in the E10 blend fell from 132.52 million gallons in 2015 to 87.07 million gallons in 2025, down 34% (-45.44 million gallons). Considering the “gain” in pure ethanol used in E15 blend and the “loss” in pure ethanol used in E10 when comparing the years of 2015 and 2025, the net gain in ethanol usage is about 15.72 million gallons, which evaluated at 2.90 gallons/bushel resulted in 5.42 million more bushels of corn used in ethanol, valued at $22.97 million3.
In 2015, 50.85 million bushels of corn4 were used to produce the amount of ethanol used in all blends sold in Iowa compared with 57.85 million bushels in 2025, up 14% (7.0 million more bushels valued at $29.67 million).
E15’s price advantage5 over other fuels and its year-round availability in Iowa is encouraging consumers to switch to this blend. In addition, according to IDR, in anticipation of the Iowa’s E15 Access Standard law taking effect, retail sales of E15 expanded in 2025. Iowa’s E15 Access Standard is a state law that requires most Iowa retailers to offer E15 for sale.