Brazilian fuel-ethanol program

Other significant disadvantages of retrofits were the quality of the conversion kits and the ability of the conversions to meet emission regulations over the useful vehicle life. The initial phases of the Brazilian ethanol program also suffered because of poor quality vehicle retrofits. The quality was so poor that the program almost failed after a fairly substantial number of vehicles were converted and the ethanol fuel infrastructure was in place. Further... 

Brazil s program was not able to supply enough fuel even with more than 15 billion liters produced annually. In order to meet consumer demand, the Brazilian government was forced to import ethanol to meet the demand. 

Dedicated Vehicles. Only Brazil and California have continued implementing alcohols in the transportation sector. The Brazilian program, the largest alternative fuel program in the world, used about 7.5% of oil equivalent of ethanol in 1987 (equivalent to 150,000 bbl of crude oil per day). In 1987 about 4 million vehicles operated on 100% ethanol and 94% of all new vehicles purchased that year were ethanol-fueled. About 25% of Brazil s light-duty vehicle fleet (10) operate on alcohol. The leading Brazilian OEMs are Autolatina (a joint venture of Volkswagen and Ford), GM, and Fiat. Vehicles are manufactured and marketed in Brazil. 

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