High-ethanol vehicles to be encouraged

Flexible-fuel vehicles are designed to run on either petrol or a fuel blend consisting of up to 85-per-cent ethanol called E85.

Industry Minister Suwit Khunkitti said the Office of the Cane and Sugar Board and the Thailand Automotive Institute would cooperate to draw up plans for allocating sugar-cane crops for export sugar or ethanol production, as well as promoting vehicles that consume E20 and E85. E20 is a fuel blend containing 20-per-cent ethanol, and E85 is ethanol with only 15-per-cent petrol.

"We'll negotiate with the Finance Ministry to cut import taxes for completely built-up vehicles with E85 engines, in order to encourage importers and create consumer demand, similar to that for E20 cars," he said.

Asian Honda Motor senior vice president Adisak Rohitasune said if the government set a clear direction for E85, that would help solve the country's energy crisis in the long run .

"However, we [Honda] have yet to decide whether we'll import flexible-fuel vehicles. We must carefully consider the technology of flexible-fuel vehicles, which are mostly used in cold-climate countries like the US and those in Europe," he said.

Meanwhile, the US-Asean Business Council (USABC) hosted a meeting yesterday between Suwit and executives from leading US-based companies, including Chevron, Coca-Cola, ConocoPhillips, FedEx, Microsoft and Merck.

Suwit said the USABC had insisted upon being a middleman, in order to encourage US companies to invest in Thailand. However, the executives urged the government to solve some obstacles to improving the investment climate for changein the Kingdom.