Willing to show the world that Brazil has a viable solution in the short term until automotive electrification is adopted on a large scale, local automakers will make new tests with the use of ethanol as a generator of batteries of hybrid models or the cell to fuel. On July 19, Toyota will begin a trip from Sao Paulo to Brasília with a hybrid Prius using ethanol instead of gasoline, which is the fuel of the original version imported from Japan. The prototype was developed by engineers of the company in the country, who will follow the route of a thousand kilometers of the test.
In the second half, Nissan will bring back to Brazil the sports utility NV200 for a new stage of testing. In the unprecedented model, the fuel cell uses ethanol mixed with water as the generator of electricity and has run exclusively through the streets and roads of the country last year. “He was sent to the matrix with the results of the evaluation and suggestions of necessary adjustments and will now return to a new test phase,” says Nissan President Marco Silva.
The president of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers (Anfavea), Antonio Megale, defends ethanol and biodiesel as the most efficient and cheaper solution for the short and medium term. “In the future, all the propulsion will be electric, but we need to evaluate how to take this into the vehicles,” says the executive, who yesterday participated in an event promoted by the Autodata agency to discuss trends for the automotive sector.
Megale criticized the Brazilian government’s delay in approving the new automotive regime, called Route 2030, which includes incentives for research and development and, at the same time, tax cuts for electric and hybrid cars.
Option
“If we have that option (to use ethanol) it is unthinkable that the government does not have that possibility as a priority,” Megale says. “It’s a potential that other regions of the world do not have,” says Megale. Both Rota 2030 and a provisional measure with reduction of the IPI for these vehicles are promises made last year and not yet fulfilled by the government. Last week, members of the Planalto stated that there is no deadline for the adoption of these programs due to disagreements between the Ministries of Finance (contrary to incentives) and that of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services (Mdic), which is favorable.
Bosch president in Brazil, Besaliel Botelho, points out that the company is very active in Europe in developing technologies for electric cars, but says that initiatives in the country will only be evaluated when there is demand. “We have created several technologies with the use of ethanol, such as electronic injection and the flex engine itself,” he recalls, for whom Brazil can be a global player in the use of cane fuel in hybrid cars and the fuel cell. He says that with Argentina and other countries in South America, the region would have “critical mass” (production) to deal with new technologies with solutions of their own. The information is from the newspaper “O Estado de S. Paulo”.