Alcohol-Run Cars Return to Brazil
04:30 PM ET 09/12/99
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - Brazilian car manufacturers, looking to boost slumping
sales, are returning to the alcohol-fueled cars that used to dominate Brazil's highways.
Fiat and Volkswagen plan to drastically increase production of alcohol-fueled cars, the
daily O Estado de S. Paulo reported. Fiat is jumping from just 90 alcohol-fueled vehicles
in August to 1,300 in September, while Volkswagen will increase production from 800 to
1,200, the newspaper said.
General Motors, which suspended production of alcohol-run cars three years ago,
will introduce its first new model in November. Ford also is planning to relaunch the cars
in the first quarter of next year, the newspaper said.
The was no immediate confirmation from any of the four companies.
After accounting for 90 percent of the nation's automobile fleet in the 1970s,
production of alcohol-fueled cars declined steadily in the late 1980s and 1990s, partly
because of lower oil prices. Last year, less than 1 percent of the vehicles coming off
assembly lines were run by alcohol.
But the industry is struggling to boost sales after being badly hit this year by
high interest rates and economic stagnation. August sales were down 17 percent from a year
earlier, and production was off 11 percent.
Manufacturers apparently hope the low cost of alcohol fuel will entice
consumers. A gallon of gasoline costs an average of $2, while alcohol fuel is 80 cents per
gallon.
