Stéphane Dumas
14/06/2005, 16h35
info trouvé à http://www.cheersandgears.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17561
Toyota developing gasoline-alcohol vehicle for Latin America: report
TOKYO: Japan's top automaker Toyota Motor has begun developing a "flex-fuel" vehicle powered by gasoline and lower-priced alcohol fuel, and aimed at the Brazilian and other Latin American markets, a newspaper reported.
Toyota aims to launch the new vehicle in the second half of next year or later, with the demand for alcohol fuel made from sugarcane or other plants rising as alternative to gasoline in Latin America, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.
A flex-fuel car runs with both gasoline and alcohol pumped into a single tank, allowing the driver to adjust the mixture between the two depending on their prices, the economic daily noted.
In Brazil the prices of ethanol, a type of alcohol fuel, are only half those of gasoline and drivers are allowed to adjust the ratio between the two fuels, it said.
Toyota, the pioneer of a hybrid car powered alternately by gasoline and electricity, did not develop flex-fuel cars before because alcohol fuel is not allowed to exceed three percent of the total in Japan, it said.
But the company now sees strong demand for such vehicles in Latin America as well as growing consumer interest in other emerging markets such as China and India, the paper said without citing sources.
The Nihon Keizai said all foreign carmakers operating in Brazil, except for Toyota and Honda Motor, were already marketing flex-fuel cars.
No immediate comment on the report was available from Toyota.
Toyota developing gasoline-alcohol vehicle for Latin America: report
TOKYO: Japan's top automaker Toyota Motor has begun developing a "flex-fuel" vehicle powered by gasoline and lower-priced alcohol fuel, and aimed at the Brazilian and other Latin American markets, a newspaper reported.
Toyota aims to launch the new vehicle in the second half of next year or later, with the demand for alcohol fuel made from sugarcane or other plants rising as alternative to gasoline in Latin America, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.
A flex-fuel car runs with both gasoline and alcohol pumped into a single tank, allowing the driver to adjust the mixture between the two depending on their prices, the economic daily noted.
In Brazil the prices of ethanol, a type of alcohol fuel, are only half those of gasoline and drivers are allowed to adjust the ratio between the two fuels, it said.
Toyota, the pioneer of a hybrid car powered alternately by gasoline and electricity, did not develop flex-fuel cars before because alcohol fuel is not allowed to exceed three percent of the total in Japan, it said.
But the company now sees strong demand for such vehicles in Latin America as well as growing consumer interest in other emerging markets such as China and India, the paper said without citing sources.
The Nihon Keizai said all foreign carmakers operating in Brazil, except for Toyota and Honda Motor, were already marketing flex-fuel cars.
No immediate comment on the report was available from Toyota.