Volkswagen celebrates 70 years in Brazil with an electric car – 03/23/2023 – Market

Volkswagen chose an electric car to mark its 70 years in Brazil. The brand confirmed this Thursday (23) that the imported sport utility vehicle iD.4 will be sold in the country from the second half of the year. It is a way of showing that the company is attentive to the future, but there are other steps to be taken at the present time.

In the announcement made by the automaker, it was emphasized that the new SUV is part of a package of 15 launches until 2025. Among them are options that combine ethanol, gasoline and electricity, known as hybrid flex cars.

“Ethanol is an opportunity for rapid CO2 reduction for Brazil and similar regions, where battery electric vehicles, a trend in Europe and other markets, should take longer to gain volume due to the initial cost and charging infrastructure” , says Roger Guilherme, manager of the Volkswagen Way to Zero Center.

He was already at VW in March 2003, when the pioneer Gol Total Flex was launched. At the time, the car celebrated the brand’s 50th anniversary in the country. The new framework unites the technologies.

Guilherme claims that more advanced fuel injection systems and more efficient vehicles when fueled with ethanol are the option for Brazil. “Combinations with electric motors should also become more common.”

The first company to launch flex-fuel hybrid models in Brazil was Toyota. The Corolla sedan debuted this option in September 2019. The Cross version, with an SUV body, arrived in March 2021.

Both work the same way. Starting always occurs in electric mode, capable of making the car run for a few kilometers without burning fuel. The secret is in the alternation of energy modes – which allows you to spend less, especially in the city.

The engines can also work together, providing 123 hp of power. When braking, part of the energy generated is used to recharge the battery installed under the rear seat. The accumulator is small, about a meter long.

The system used by Toyota was developed in the 1990s and is widely used around the world. The adaptation to ethanol, however, was not simple.

The automaker’s first tests were made with Prius units. There were constant modifications to the parts and programming of the electronic injection system to reach a satisfactory result.

Volkswagen also faced difficulties during the development of the first flex-fuel car.

Roger Guilherme remembers that one of the biggest challenges was adjusting the software that identified the fuel. “Determining mathematically what was the ethanol-gasoline mixture present in the tank required a lot of analysis and tests, aiming to define actions to mitigate the risks of a false interpretation [do sistema] and its consequences.”

Once these problems are overcome, the use of ethanol combined with electricity offers environmental advantages and fuel economy. According to data collected by the Mauá Institute of Technology, a Corolla Hybrid sedan (R$ 181,000) can travel 13 km in the city on one liter of alcohol.

Other brands develop hybrid flex models for the national market. GWM will adopt this technology in the future pickup produced in Iracemápolis (inland São Paulo). The Stellantis group has also confirmed that it will launch models of this type in its different brands.

“For Brazil, the moves are electrification, which will expand its volumes, ethanol and also the combination of this ethanol with electric motors, with the location of these technologies. It is a virtuous cycle that the country can face”, said Antonio Filosa in an interview to Folha held in 2022.

It is not known, however, how the hybrid flex cars that will compete with the Toyota line will be like. Something not very different or sophisticated is expected, as it will be necessary to launch compact, lower-priced models with this technology.

VW’s history in Brazil began with the Beetle

Volkswagen’s domestic production began on March 23, 1953, in a rented shed in the Ipiranga neighborhood, south of São Paulo. At the time, 12 workers assembled the Beetle, which was called Sedan 1200.

Kombi arrived in 1957 following the same assembly method. The van was the longest-lived vehicle in the national industry, remaining in line until the end of 2013.

The Anchieta plant was inaugurated on November 18, 1959. Since then, around 25 million brand vehicles have been produced in the country at plants located in the states of São Paulo and Paraná.