AD_MAGAZINE_352

15 AutoData | February 2019 What about the ethanol? We have to get rid of the idea that a strong investment in electric vehicleswill make combustion cars disappear. That will not happen. It is a process of more than 20, 25 years untilwe have adequate solutions for everyone. Brazil is the coun- trywith the largest use of renewable fuel in theworld, so the discussion should be about how to combine ethanol with the mobility of the future and not say that ethanol is yesterday’s technology and that noweveryonewill drive electric cars without knowing where the energy co- mes from. With the ethanol, Brazil could be a leader in alternative technologies, aside from the electric car. Ok, but the impact of a static presenta- tion of a newtechnologyand its everyday use are quite different things... Honestly, with the structure we have in Brazil today the electric car is not practical at all. On the other hand, the e-tron has autonomy of 400 kilometers. Ok, that’s on paper: in Sao Paulo traffic, in real use, it will be lower. We’re still going to run tests, but let’s say it rea- ches, maybe, something around 300 kilometers: people drive an average of fifty kilometers a day in Sao Paulo, which means that in theory you could charge the battery only on weekends. It’s a car to go to work, then to a mee- ting, a restaurant, etc. and return home in the evening. There would be only a problem in case of a longer trip, to Belo Horizonte or Curitiba, for example. In other words: for a family that has only one car, the electrics are not practical. But those who buy an e-tron, which should cost from R$ 400 thousand to R$ 500 thousand, certainly will have another car in the garage. For travel, they will use the Q7. (laughs) “With the structure we have in Brazil today, the electric car is not practical at all. The premium segment is ready for it, but the volume segment isn’t.”