A 1.5. Can ethanol be used in existing gasoline vehicles in other countries around the world?
Several experiences in several countries since the 1970s (Brazil, USA, Canada, Sweden, China, India, Thailand, Colombia, Jamaica, etc.) have successively demonstrated the technical feasibility of using ethanol-gasoline blends in vehicles (cars, pickup trucks, motorcycles, etc.) originally made to run on gasoline, requiring no change in the engine or the vehicle. Virtually all automakers in the world consider blends containing up to 10 percent ethanol to be acceptable. In fact, using blends is usually the fastest, most practical way of getting a fuel ethanol program started. Even though the ethanol content of the blend is mainly determined by the availability of the product and some economic and political factors, fuel specifications can also be a determining factor in this process. In Brazil the ethanol content of gasoline is higher than in other countries, ranging from 20 to 25 percent. Due to this characteristic, vehicles come out of the plant already prepared for that blend range or
