The fleet of flexible-fuel vehicles in Brazil is the largest in the world. Since their inception in 2003, a total of 30.5 million flex fuel cars and light-duty trucks were registered in the country, and over 6 million flexible-fuel motorcycles, both by March 2018. The market share of flex-fuel autos and light commercial trucks represented 88.6% of all light-duty registrations in 2017. There were over 80 flex car and light truck models available in the market manufactured by 14 major carmakers, and five flex-fuel motorcycles models available .
Brazilian flexible-fuel vehicles are optimized to run on any mix of E20-E25 gasoline and up to 100% hydrous ethanol fuel (E100). Flex vehicles in Brazil are built-in with a small gasoline reservoir for cold starting the engine when temperatures drop below . An improved flex motor generation was launched in 2009 which eliminated the need for the secondary gas tank.
According to two separate research studies conducted in 2009, 65% of the flex-fuel registered vehicles regularly use ethanol fuel, and use climbs to 93% of flex car owners in São Paulo, the main ethanol producer state where local taxes are lower, and prices are more competitive than gasoline. However, as a result of higher ethanol prices caused by the Brazilian ethanol industry crisis that began in 2009, by November 2013 only 23% flex-fuel car owners were using ethanol regularly, down from 66% in 2009.
History
After the 1973 oil crisis, the Brazilian government made mandatory the use of ethanol blends with gasoline, Ph.D. Dissertation Thesis, pp. 81-82 and neat ethanol-powered cars (E100 only) were launched to the market in 1979, after testing with several prototypes developed by four carmakers. Brazilian carmakers modified gasoline engines to support ethanol characteristics and changes included compression ratio, amount of fuel injected, replacement of materials that would get corroded by the contact with ethanol, use of colder spark plugs suitable for dissipating heat due to higher flame temperatures, and an auxiliary cold-start system that injects gasoline from a small tank in the engine compartment to help starting when cold.
Flexible-fuel technology started being developed only by the end of the 1990s by Brazilian engineers and in March 2003 Volkswagen do Brasil launched in the market the Gol 1.6 Total Flex, the first commercial flexible fuel vehicle capable of running on any blend of gasoline and ethanol.
Technology
The Brazilian flexible fuel car is built with an ethanol-ready engine and one fuel tank for both fuels. The small gasoline reservoir for starting the engine with pure gasoline in cold weather, used in earlier ethanol-only vehicles, was kept in the first generation of Brazilian flexible-fuel cars, mainly for users of the central and southern regions, where winter temperatures normally drop below . An improved flex motor generation was launched in 2009 that allowed for the elimination of this secondary gas reservoir tank. (every article is presented in both English and Portuguese)
A key innovation in the Brazilian flex technology was avoiding the need for an additional dedicated sensor to monitor the ethanol-gasoline mix, which made the first American M85 flex fuel vehicles too expensive. This was accomplished through the lambda probe, used to measure the quality of combustion in conventional engines, is also required to tell the engine control unit (ECU) which blend of gasoline and alcohol is being burned. This task is accomplished automatically through software developed by Brazilian engineers, called "Software Fuel Sensor" (SFS), fed with data from the standard sensors already built-in the vehicle. The technology was developed by the Brazilian subsidiary of Bosch in 1994, but was further improved and commercially implemented in 2003 by the Italian subsidiary of Magneti Marelli, located in Hortolândia, São Paulo. A similar fuel injection technology was developed by the Brazilian subsidiary of Delphi Automotive Systems, and it is called "Multifuel", based on research conducted at its facility in Piracicaba, São Paulo. Print edition No. 1941 This technology allows the controller to regulate the amount of fuel injected and spark time, as fuel flow needs to be decreased and also self-combustion needs to be avoided when gasoline is used because ethanol engines have compression ratio around 12:1, too high for gasoline.
Brazilian flex engines are being designed with higher compression ratios, taking advantage of the higher ethanol blends and maximizing the benefits of the higher oxygen content of ethanol, resulting in lower emissions and improving fuel efficiency. The following table shows the evolution and improvement of the different generations of flex engines developed in Brazil.
Comparison of performance of several generations of Brazilian flex-fuel engines(Percentages show change in performance as compared with using gasoline) Year Enginecompression ratio Enginepower Enginetorque Fuel efficiency improvementGasoline injection cold start system2003 9.0:1 to 10.5:1 +3% +2% -25 to -35% Yes2006 11.0:1 to 12.5:1 +7% +5% -25 to -30% Yes2008 12.0:1 to 13.5:1 +9% +7% -20 to -25% NoSource: Joseph (2007) in The Royal Society (2008), "Sustainable biofuels: prospects and challenges". Policy Document 01/08, pp. 35-36 - Click on the right upper box to download the report in PDF format.
Brazilian flex cars are capable of running on just hydrated ethanol (E100), or just on a blend of gasoline with 20 to 25%anhydrous ethanol, or on any arbitrary combination of both fuels. Pure gasoline is no longer sold in the country because these high ethanol blends are mandatory since 1993. This decree fixed the mandatory blend at 25% starting July 1st, 2007 See article 9º and modifications approved by Law Nº 10.696, 2003-07-02 increasing the upper limit to 25% Therefore, all Brazilian automakers have optimized flex vehicles to run with gasoline blends from E20 to E25, so these FFVs are unable to run smoothly with pure gasoline with the exception of two models are specifically built with a flex-fuel engine optimized to operate also with pure gasoline (E0), the Renault Clio Hi-Flex and the Fiat Siena Tetrafuel.
The flexibility of Brazilian FFVs empowers the consumers to choose the fuel depending on current market prices. As ethanol fuel economy is lower than gasoline because of ethanol's energy content is close to 34% less per unit volume than gasoline,http://www.eia.doe.gov DOE FAQhttp://www.eia.doe.gov Alternative Fuel Efficiencies in Miles per Gallon flex cars running on ethanol get a lower mileage than when running on pure gasoline. However, this effect is partially offset by the usually lower price per liter of ethanol fuel. As a rule of thumb, Brazilian consumers are frequently advised by the media to use more alcohol than gasoline in their mix only when ethanol prices are 30% lower or more than gasoline, as ethanol price fluctuates heavily depending on the result of seasonal sugar cane harvests.
Production and market share
After the market launch of the Gol 1.6 Total Flex, the first commercial flexible fuel vehicle capable of running on any blend of gasoline and ethanol, GM do Brasil followed three months later with the Chevrolet Corsa 1.8 Flexpower, using an engine developed by a joint-venture with Fiat called PowerTrain. , the following 14 carmakers build and sell flexible fuel vehicles in Brazil: Citroën, Chery, Fiat, Ford, GM do Brasil (Chevrolet), Honda, Hyundai, Kia Motors, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault, Toyota and Volkswagen.
Flexible fuel vehicles were 22% of the new car sales in 2004, 73% in 2005, 87.6% in July 2008, and reached a record 94% in August 2009. The production of flex-fuel cars and light commercial vehicles since 2003 reached 10 million vehicles in March 2010, and 15 million in January 2012. Registrations of flex-fuel cars and light trucks represented 87.0% of all passenger and light duty vehicles sold in the country in 2012. See Table 2.3 and 2.4 pp. 60-63 and Table 2.5 and 2.6, 66. Production passed the 20 million-unit mark in June 2013.
By the end of 2014, flex-fuel cars represented 54% of the Brazilian registered stock of light-duty vehicles, while gasoline only vehicles represented 34.3%. , flex-fuel light-duty vehicle sales totaled 25.5 million units. The market share of flex vehicles reached 88.6% of all light-duty registrations in 2017. , fifteen years after the launch of the first flex fuel car, there were 30.5 million flex cars and light trucks registered in the country, and 6 million flex motorcycles.
The rapid success of flex vehicles was made possible by the existence of 33,000 filling stations with at least one ethanol pump available by 2006, a heritage of the early Pró-Álcool ethanol program.See Chapter 6. Homegrown Energy. These facts, together with the mandatory use of E25 blend of gasoline throughout the country, allowed Brazil in 2008 to achieve more than 50% of fuel consumption in the gasoline market from sugar cane-based ethanol.
According to two separate research studies conducted in 2009, at the national level 65% of the flex-fuel registered vehicles regularly used ethanol fuel, and use climbed to 93% in São Paulo, the main ethanol producer state where local taxes are lower, and E100 prices at the pump are usually more competitive than gasoline. However, as a result of higher ethanol prices caused by the Brazilian ethanol industry crisis that began in 2009, combined with government subsidies set to keep gasoline price lower than the international market value, by November 2013 only 23% flex-fuel car owners were using ethanol regularly, down from 66% in 2009.
+Ethanol flex-fuel motor vehicle production in Brazil 2003-2017(1)(2)Year Flex autos produced Flex light trucks produced Total flex-fuellight-duty vehiclesproduced Flex vehicles as % total light vehicles(1)(2)Flex motor-cycles produced(3) Flex motor-cycles as % total 2003 39,853 9,411 49,264 2.9 2004 282,710 49,797 332,507 15.2 2005 820,791 60,150 880,94137.1 2006 1,291,913 100,142 1,392,05556.3 2007 1,764,494 172,437 1,936,931 69.1 2008 2,026,768 216,800 2,243,648 74.7 2009 2,298,942 242,211 2,541,153 84.0188,49412.2 2010 2,311,721 315,380 2,627,111 77.1332,35118.2 2011 2,215,548 335,234 2,550,782 80.7956,11744.7 2012 2,418,397 313,663 2,732,060 83.9 814,110 48.2 2013 2,616,845 333,766 2,950,611 84.2 NA 2014 2,291,115 346,607 2,637,722 88.2 NA 2015 1,785,284 212,473 1,997,757 85.4 NA 2016 1,605,855 164,813 1,770,668 84.0 NA 2017 1,923,143 207,035 2,130,178 81.9 NA Total 2003-17 25,693,379 3,080,009 28,773,388 70.3 2,291,072 31.8 Sources: Cars and light trucks: ANFAVEA (2003-2017). See Table 2.3 for production figures, and Tables 2.4 and 2.5 for actual registrations (includes flex imports from Argentina). Motorcycles: ABRACICLO 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012. Notes: (1) Includes exports and excludes flex imports from the other Mercosur countries. (2) Total includes gasoline, neat ethanol, flex, and diesel-powered vehicles.(3) Total between 2009 and 2012 only
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