FUEL ECONOMY IMPACT EVALUATION OF HYBRID VEHICLES IMPLEMENTATION IN THE BRAZILIAN FLEET

With the turmoil of the finance crisis in 2008 and 2009 and increasing volatility of petroleum prices at US gas stations, the automobile industry has been forced to review its product cycle plan and to expedite implementation of fuel economy driven technologies such as Hybrid and Battery Electrical Vehicles. For the Brazilian market, due to its independent fuel supply base with adequate infrastructure and the established demand for Flex Fuel Vehicles, hybrid technologies are not currently in the scope of short term developments of local industry. However, driven by upcoming regulations with more restricted levels of emissions, increasing market interest on fuel economy and more global synergies, hybrid technology is in the strategy perspective for the following five to eight years as a bridge action to BEVs. Based on the fuel economy provided by models in production in 2009 and on market projections of vehicles sales in Brazil, the objective of this study is to forecast fuel economy associated to the ramp-up implementation of Hybrid vehicles in the local market.