Mitsubishi has confirmed that it will develop and market a flexible fuel vehicle (FFV) for the Brazilian market by the end of the year. Automotive News also reports that the company has announced plans to launch FFVs in North America by 2009. The vehicles will be able to run on either gasoline or ethanol or a combination of the two and will join the zero-emission MiEV auto in Mitsubishi’s green initiative lineup.

The flex-fuel system works by measuring the concentration of oxygen in the exhaust gas passing out of the engine and thus enabling the concentration of ethanol in the fuel to be optimized so that amounts of fuel injected and the ignition spark timing can be perfected. The end result is that the engine can handle gasoline-ethanol fuel mixtures with proportions of ethanol between 0% and 100%. Final performance and fuel-economy is said to be comparable with regular gasoline vehicles.