Nissan adds flex-fuel version of the Versa ... in Brazil
In Brazil, ethanol tends to be the fuel of choice over gasoline thanks to favorable pricing and the local sugar cane feedstock. As a result most of the cars available there are offered in flex fuel variants that aren't for sale anywhere else in the world. Such is the case with the latest edition of the Nissan Versa which is sold in Brazil as the Tiida. The Tiida FFV uses the same 1.8-liter four cylinder that's in the U.S.-market Versa with a new fuel system. The FFV engine is rated at 125 hp on gasoline and 126 hp on ethanol. The 9.9:1 compression ratio remains unchanged and doesn't do anything to take advantage of the higher octane rating of the alcohol fuel. Some other manufacturers bump their alcohol engines up as high as 15:1 to get more power and efficiency. As a result, the mileage of the FFV Tiida is rated at a mediocre 16.5 mpg (U.S.) in the city and 22.6 mpg (U.S.) on the highway.
[Source: Motortips.blogspot.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jharlan 8:42AM (4/18/2009)
That isn't going to get it. That's about Escalade or Hummer mileage in an eco-box..
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Jeff Grant 9:49AM (4/19/2009)
"As a result, the mileage of the FFV Tiida is rated at a mediocre 16.5 mpg (U.S.) in the city and 22.6 mpg (U.S.) on the highway."
Is this on E100, or the 24% gas/ethanol mix they have in Brazil?
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Jeff Grant 10:30AM (4/19/2009)
Looks like the Versa gets about 20mpg combined on straight ethanol and about 30 combined on gas (fueleconomy.gov #s) with 50/50 driving. So if ethanol was 2/3 the price of gas or less that would be fine with me. E85 would probably yield a 2+ mpg increase. I'd really like to have a straight electric as my next car, but it sucks that Texas is so freaking big and everything is 50mi away from where you are at any given time (damn Dallas infrastructure!). The volt would be a good compromise if the price was more in line with my budget. I don't particularly want a gas only car on my next round of purchasing. A flexfuel prius insight would be a nice option.
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PabloKoh 5:13PM (4/20/2009)
The Brazilian consumer's demand for ethanol forces the manufacturers to produce flex fuel cars. I wish there was more demand for ethanol here in the US. It would force the manufacturers to introduce flex-fuel compatibility on more cars, not just the gas guzzlers to qualify for CAFE standards.
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Guilherme 7:48PM (7/22/2009)
Actually, only engines that run strictly on ethanol get their compression ratios bumped to 15:1, flex-fuel ones tend to stay around 12.5:1, to avoid knocking problems when running on gasoline.
And they're indeed not fuel-efficient, older cars that ran strictly on ethanol could get similar mileage than their gasoline counterparts, but flex-fuel cars spend about 35% more fuel when running on ethanol, I think manufacturers here in Brazil would do a better job if they sold ethanol-only and gasoline-only cars, we don't need flex fuel, ethanol supply is good and constant through the country, and we have surplus gasoline production that we sell very cheap to neighbouring South American countries.
Since most people who have flex-fuel cars only refuel with ethanol, there'd be no problem ditching flex-fuel altogether, and they'd be cheaper to run and even greener, since they would spend less ethanol than a flex-fuel vehicle.
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