In the 70´s the Brazilian Government created the Brazilian Ethanol Programme PROÁLCOOL in order to reduce the country’s dependence of oil imports by substituting conventional gasoline with fuel alcohol from sugar cane.
Since 1975, the cost of producing ethanol has declined by 4 to 5 percent annually. Today the E25 mixture of hydrated ethanol and gasoline, called gasohol (25 % of alcohol admixture to regular gasoline), is currently available for about 85% of the price of gasoline (when taking into account that the energy content of gasohol is lower than pure gasoline).
One new objective is to implement the Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) technology running on the Brazilian gasohol (25 % of alcohol admixture to regular gasoline). The Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) technology can be seen as the trend-setting technology for future transport systems. Powered by a combination of different conversion technologies (e.g. combustion engines, fuel cells and electric generators/motors) and storage systems (e.g. batteries), the advanced technology achieves up to twice the fuel economy of regular vehicles, helping to reduce up to 50 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.
The City of São Paulo is the fourth biggest city in the world. 16 million people are living in the metropolitan area. Due to the city’s inadequate public transportation the daily traffic jam is one of the major constraints for further progress of the city. In addition it poses serious health hazards to the citizens. The traffic causes tremendous exhaust gas emissions and the intensive use of private car shows the necessity of transport sector improvements. Therefore, the city of São Paulo has developed a long-range transport plan that should help to reduce the air pollution. Less-polluting Flex Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) or Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) will help to significantly reduce pollution in the heavily populated urban area of São Paulo.