More than 5m vehicles and almost nine in 10 new vehicles in Brazil now run on both petrol and ethanol derived from sugar cane, the car manufacturing association Anfavea has said.

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Anfavea president Jackson Schneider told Agence France Press (AFP) in Sao Paulo that Brazil – a pioneer in biofuels – has made more than five million so-called “flexi-fuel” vehicles since the first in 2003.


Some 4.97m vehicles were sold nationally by the end of February and “the five million vehicle mark has already been passed”, he said.


Last month, 168,744 new flexfuel vehicles were registered – 88.3% of the total – compared to 2,003,090 last year.


Schneider predicted that such vehicles would make up 52% of Brazil’s registered vehicle fleet by 2013, up from 12% in 2007.


AFP noted that Brazil is a world leader in biofuels, last year producing 22bn litres from sugar cane.

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