Politicians, Big Ag and big auto manufacturers like Toyota And volkswagen all conspire in Brazil to maintain lead ethanol at the cost of tram. Brazil’s flexible fuel-powered cars, which can run on a mixture ethanol and gasoline, has long been the most popular vehicle on the market, but these “cane carts” threatens the adoption of all-electric cars in the South American country, because Bloomberg report. And despite the popularity of the versatile fuel ethanol automobile, it is not necessarily in the hands of the buyer.
Ethanol-powered cars have close ties to Brazil’s sugar industry, which has great power and influence. Brazil is the world’s largest sugar producer; industry that is said to have given birth to the country agricultural elite, back when this small group amassed wealth on the backs of slaves brought in from Africa. In the following decades, the sugar industry flourished and by 1979, found another niche for cars running on pure ethanol imported by fiat.
These sugarcane cars run cheaper than gasoline cars, and making Brazil less prone to gasoline shortages, which devastated the country’s economy in the ’70s. As you might expect, buyers responded well to these cars and they’ve gained a steady following.
But it wasn’t until Volkswagen introduced the Gol Flex in 2003 that ethanol-powered cars really took off. Gol Flex popularized flexible fuel cars that run on a mixture of ethanol and gas, and these cars quickly dethroned pure gas vehicles on the market. For reference, flex-fuel cars accounted for 84.5% of the country’s total auto sales in June 2023, per Bloomberg.
Until the advent of electric cars, sugarcane-powered cars were more of a boon than a curse. These vehicles have helped Brazil achieve a relatively low carbon footprint: Bloomberg cites research that shows the life cycle emissions of Brazil’s sugarcane trucks at around 16.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide each compared with 40 to 50 tonnes emitted by similar combustion models around the world. As a result, these vehicles have helped Brazil reduce emissions compared to most developed economies and “other densely populated, middle-income countries like Russia or Mexico”. Remember that Brazil is not a sparsely populated country: São Paolo is the most populous city outside of Asia and the fourth largest city in the world based on population.
The fact that sugarcane-powered cars have helped Brazil limit emissions to a large extent while saving Brazilians money has solidly reinforced their popularity. But cars now stand in the way of electric vehicles and are threatening to put Brazil behind the rest of the world as the auto industry shifts to all-electric cars. Although electric vehicles have about half the life-cycle emissions (8 or 9 tons of CO2) than sugarcane-powered vehicles, the Brazilian government doesn’t seem to want EVs to succeed. And commercial interests from Big Ag and Big Auto also play a role:
“It’s not to deny electric vehicles, but ethanol will still hold a place in Brazil’s journey over the next 10 to 15 years, especially as hybrids increase performance,” said Paula Kovarsky, chief strategy officer of Brazil’s largest sugarcane processing company, Raizen.
It doesn’t help that electric cars in Brazil easily cost twice as much as ethanol-powered vehicles like the Toyota Corolla that runs on flex fuel. Due to the country’s stubborn devotion to sugarcane cars, up-and-coming electric vehicle makers from China such as BYD and Great Wall Motors are now planning to produce flexible hybrids, in a stunning reversal in the Chinese automakers’ march towards an electric future.
The continued failure of electric vehicles in the country is a shame, as Brazil has one of the cleanest electricity grids in the world, producing more than 80% of its electricity from renewable sources. This is Brazil’s chance to become one of the countries with the cleanest car fleet in the world, but a slightly cheaper and cleaner-burning version is threatening the country’s all-electric future.
