The Japanese company’s Brazilian subsidiary reported that the two Corolla variants will outperform the existing gasoline engine powered Toyota Corolla. The first of the two Corollas is the Corolla Flex which the company hopes to have an initial monthly sale of 2,500 units. The second Corolla model is the Corolla Fielder Flex. For the Fielder Flex, Toyota aims for an initial monthly sale of 750 units. These vehicles are equipped with an engine similar in principle and construction to that of a gasoline engine. The only difference is that several parts of the engines which run on ethanol need to be fortified still. This is because ethanol is more corrosive than gasoline and to combat this corrosive nature of the alternative fuel, different parts such as fuel lines, valves, cylinder walls, and other parts which comes in contact with the fuel and its emission needs to be reinforced. Other parts such as Airaid cold air intake systems are not affected directly by the corrosive nature of the fuel. The two Corolla variants according to the company are the first for-market vehicles that can run on pure ethanol that Toyota produces. While there are already many flex-fuel vehicles in the market, the majority of them are not designed to run on pure ethanol. Most of them are configured to run on E10 or E85. The number (10 and 85) pertains to the percentage of bio-ethanol on the fuel. For example, an E85 fuel is 85 percent bio-ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Here is an information that might be useful: lincenergy.us
Cool ! This goes to show that Toyota is dedicated to giving ALL alternative energy solutions a chance. Ten years ago when gasoline was still $1.50/gal, Toyota decided to produce the Prius. Today, when oil prices are falling, Toyota is giving biofuels a chance. I look highly upon Toyota for this. Who knows, they may surprise us yet again by producing the CNG hybrid Camry. (if I'm correct, Toyota doesn't offer any CNG vehicles yet, right?) I've been seeing A LOT of GM Flex vehicles on the roads lately. Maybe with oil prices down, and biofuels being much less profitable, GM is marking down Flex vehicles significantly. .
Considering that the OP is quoting the Brazilian subsidiary of Toyota I suspect that these flex fuel and E100 vehicles are for the domestic Brazilian market. It makes sense with the large amounts of ethanol used in Brazil. Side note: This is nothing new, Brazil has had factory supplied flex fuel vehicles for a least a decade. Toyota is just catching up with the times. This is a good thing, just not anything new.
