The Brazilian automobile industry revised its decision to stop manufacturing cars that run exclusively on alcohol as of 2006.
According to the president of the Energy and Environment Committee of the National Association of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (Anfavea), Henry Joseph Júnior, these vehicles should continue to be manufactured, and production may even be increased.
"At the time flexible fuel was launched in 2003, we had the impression that flex-fuel cars – powered by either alcohol or gasoline – would replace ethanol-driven vehicles – which run exclusively on alcohol -, but this did not prove to be the case.
"The forecast has already been revised. Nowadays, there is even a possibility that the production of alcohol-driven vehicles will expand," he affirmed.
Joseph Júnior explained that the decision to continue producing ethanol-driven vehicles took into account the demand received by the automobile industry from consumers.
According to the automobile industry representative, even after the launching of flex-fuel cars, the sale of alcohol-driven vehicles has held steady at around 4,000 vehicles per year.
The Anfavea informs that, to date, 6 million alcohol-driven cars have been produced and sold in the country. In 2003, the year of the organization’s most recent consolidated report, it estimated that 3.4 million of the 17 million passenger cars circulating in Brazil were alcohol-driven.
According to the organization’s press office, the number of flex-fuel cars produced and sold since the technology was launched in 2003 amounts to nearly 1 million vehicles.
Agência Brasil