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The new Brazilian car maker, Obvio ! Automotoveiculos S.A., is introducing its "Green Dream," one of the world's most environmentally friendly automobiles, into the U.S. market. The Obvio ! vehicles participate in the global warming solution three ways. The cars are built using advanced environmental manufacturing processes. They run on gasoline, natural gas, or ethanol, or any combination of the three (a separate version will run on electricity only). And, under a new program, the company will contribute a portion of each car's purchase price to a fund to offset its carbon footprint. Obvio ! builds cars only for pre-paid long-term contracts through exclusive country distributors. Fifty thousand vehicles have been ordered for shipment to the U.S. starting in 2008, and the company is completing arrangements for 70,000 for Europe and 30,000 for Japan. Obvio ! converted the powerful 1.6-liter gasoline Tritec engine (used in the BMW Mini and PT Cruiser) for trybrid fuel (ethanol, natural gas, and gasoline) and tweaked it for a higher ethanol performance. A 200 HP electric plug-in version goes from zero to 60 miles per hour in five seconds, with a range of 250 miles before recharging.
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