Flex-fuel engine
Motor flex (flexible fuel)
- Date
- 2003 · confidence high
- Place
- São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, Brazil
- Credited to
- Volkswagen do Brasil, Magneti Marelli and Bosch Brasil
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
An engine with sensors and electronic management that accepts any mix of petrol and ethanol. Within a few years, more than 90% of new cars sold in Brazil were flex-fuel.
Ford trialled flexible-fuel vehicles in the United States in the 1990s; the Gol Total Flex (March 2003) began its mass adoption.
What it led to
- choosing fuel at the pump according to price
- the consolidation of ethanol as a mass fuel