Father of The Ethanol Car
In the year of 1979 Mario Garnero held the position of director for Industrial Relations of Volkswagen Brazil and was subsequently appointed president of the National Association of Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers (ANFAVEA).
1979 was a crucial year for the Brazilian economy as the petroleum crisis pushed the federal government to consider imposing a ration on gasoline use which would ultimately mean disaster for the sales in the automotive industry.
Garnero, as president of ANFAVEA, visualized the car empowered by ethanol as the only solution for the ongoing fuel crisis and took the first step for its implementation on a national scale.
Initially, Garnero convinced and got the approval of the presidents of the four major automobile producers in Brazil—Joseph O'Neil, president of Ford, Wolfgang Sauer, president of Volkswagen, Joe Sanchez, of General Motors, and Silvano Valentino, of Fiat—to establish the audacious goal of producing 1 million cars moved by ethanol, which at the time corresponded to the entire automobile production of the preceding year. The quartet, under Garnero's leadership, left behind any idea of competition to unite themselves around the historic objective of transforming the fleet of cars from gasoline to ethanol.
Afterward, Garnero elaborated together with Brazil's National Industry Confederation (CNI) a complete business plan which sanctioned the possibility of the production of 1 million cars moved on ethanol, thus eliminating any technical doubts on the feasibility of the process.
Garnero then produced a document which contained the signatures of over 800 of the most prominent leaders of the Brazilian economy, all in support of the production of the ethanol empowered automobile. The private sector by that time was entirely mobilized.
Finally, Garnero persuaded his friend and president of the Republic, General João Batista Figueiredo, to engaged himself in the cause and launch the "One million ethanol cars" operation, which conveyed governmental support to the ethanol and sugarcane producers in order to guarantee the sufficient availability of ethanol fuel and also to the automotive industry in order to be thoroughly equipped, in a period of only four months, for the transformations caused by the substitution of gasoline by ethanol.
Three years later and 90% of Brazil's new automobiles were consuming ethanol fuel, notably cheaper then gasoline.
Mario Garnero still today is called the father of the ethanol car in the private initiative, remembered by his tireless contribution for the implementation of over 1 million ethanol cars while president of the National Association of Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers and also for his unshakable belief in the future of alternative energy.
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