REAR VIEW Mirror: FUEL FIAT FOR A KING

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Jun 22, 2008 | by Brian Twomey

WITH oil prices looking like they might feasibly pass EUR140 a barrel and global consumption on the up the scramble is on to find an alternative to gasoline.

Fiat took us to Brazil recently to show us one such alternative, bio-fuels produced from alcohol, which is obtained from the vast sugar cane plantations.

Now, regular gasoline powered cars are becoming the minority in Brazil as bio-fuel powered cars now outsell petrol cars in what is Fiat's second biggest market in the world.

Indeed, Fiat dominates this market and it is not just cars either. Fiat also outsells all rivals in agricultural equipment and in trucks.

The Brazilian market is dominated by Fiat and every Fiat, from the Mille Fire Flex (a face lifted Uno), through to the Palio and the Punto comes with the option of alcohol power.

So what are the benefits? According to the local producers of sugar cane, Brazil is ideally place to exploit the local appetite for bio-fuel.

In 2006 1.2 million of the 2.09 million cars built in Brazil were ethanol powered. Sugar cane is a good source of bio-fuel and the production process is, they say, carbon neutral.

Brazil is a big country too; the world's largest producer of sugar cane, so the government claims that ethanol production doesn't impact on domestic food prices.

Brazil's initial reasoning for producing ethanol to power the nation fleet wasn't environmental.

Brazil emerged from the 1974 oil crisis eager to reduce dependency on foreign oil imports. Now Brazil is the world's biggest exporter of ethanol fuel. A quick drive in a few of the local, ethanol powered Fiats reveals the strengths of the fuel as opposed to gasoline.

It is renewable. I drove both a Siena and a Punto through the roads that criss-cross the massive sugar plantation and the car was being powered by the fuel that came from these fields, E100 with no petrol involved at all even though the sump is full of conventional oil.

It feels identical to its petrol-powered counterparts although Fiat claim that the ethanolpowered Punto is actually faster than it's petroldriven counterparts.

Fiat now offer flexi fuel alternatives which run on both petrol and bio ethanol as well.

Sadly, Fiat seem to be noncommittal to the idea of ethanol- fuelled cars in Europe, even though one of their most popular models in Europe - the Punto - is also the most popular model in Brazil.

Ethanol might not be the answer to all fuel supply problems, but for now - in one country at least - it seems to be working.