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24 February 2019 | AutoData INDUSTRIAL POLICY » ROTA 2030 Toyota was just waiting for the signature By André Barros By the end of this year, the world’s first hybrid automobile equipped with an electric engine and a flex fuel will come into series production. It will leave one of Toyota do Brasil’s factories - probably in Indaiatuba, SP –the company announced in a ceremony organized on December 13, in Brasília, DF, with the presence of the former president of Brazil. Although tests of the flex hybrid technology were conducted with a Prius, the company has not confirmed which model will be the first to receive the system. Recently, an investment of R$ 1 billion was announced for the factory in Indaiatuba, from where Corolla comes from. The government’s decision to grant an extra discount of 1 percentage point in the IPI to vehicles that combine an electric engine with the flex system was fundamental. “It’s three percentage points less in the IPI for a hybrid flex model compared to a hybrid with an engine powered by gasoline”, celebrated Ricardo Bastos, Toyota’s director of government affairs. “The support that Rota 2030 gives to the development of those technologies was important to our decision.” The Toyota initiative directly collaborates with the nationalization of hybrid technologies in Brazil: in addition to being the first vehicle in the world to use flex fuel technology, the car that the automaker will produce is going to be a pioneer in hybrid technology with a local production in the country. According to Bastos, most of the model will have Brazilian content, but the hybrid assembly systems will be imported, at least for now: “Our intention is to increase local content and we are already negotiating with suppliers and systems suppliers for that”. Presented in March, the prototype of the hybrid Prius flex concluded its tests in Brazil running several roads to evaluate the engine- transmission assembly behavior when fueled with ethanol. The announcement itself regarding the series production of the technology confirms that the results were positive, according to Bastos. The development was led by the Brazilian engineering team, with the support of the headquarters, in Japan. With a great interest in technology, Unica or União da Indústria de Cana-de Açúcar (Sugar Cane Industry Union), was one of the main supporters of the project, which also had partnerships with UnB, University of Brasilia, and also with USP, the University of Sao Paulo. was extinguished by the current federal government, which in its place established Sepec, the Special Secretariat for Produc- tivity, Employment and Competitiveness, as part of the Ministry of Economy. In the sameway, MDIC releaseduntilDe- cember 28, two ordinances and a resolution to complement Rota 2030, regarding the auto parts not produced inBrazil, the energy efficiency targets and the formation of the monitoring group and the program’smana- gement council. Nothingelsewas published regarding the automotive regime this year. A few days before delivering the pre- sidential sash, the former president was modestly celebrated by Anfavea: Antô- nio Megale handed him a plaque which is written: “Homage fromAnfavea and the Automotive Sector to the President of the Republic for believing and supporting re- search and development in Brazil”(Sic). It is little, much less than was imagined at the beginning of talks in Brasilia in that April 2017. But it seems to be much more than if the decision had been left in the hands of the current government.