An experimental study of laminar combustion characteristics of ethanol-air premixed mixtures was conducted with different ignition methods, including laser induced spark ignition (LISI) and electric spark ignition (SI) at an initial condition of 358 K temperature and 0.1 MPa pressure. Flame propagation with the two different ignition methods was analyzed and discussed. The laminar flame speed was extrapolated with a nonlinear extrapolation method. Results indicate that the laminar speed of ethanol-air mixtures with LISI is faster than that with SI at lean mixtures, but slower at stoichiometric and rich mixtures. The peak values of the laminar burning velocity for SI and LISI with nonlinear extrapolation are 50.1 cm/s and 47.6 cm/s at the equivalence ratio of 1.1, respectively. Laser-induced spark ignition is able to ignite leaner ethanol-air mixtures.