The fuel ethanol industry is well developed in the United States. Americans have driven over 3 trillion kilometres on ethanol-blended fuels since 1979.
Brazil is the world's leader in the use of ethanol as an automobile fuel.
More than 11 billion litres of ethanol for fuel are produced each year. Ethanol was introduced to reduce Brazil's dependence on expensive foreign oil, and provides an additional market for domestic sugar producers. Beneficial effects on air quality have been an added bonus. In Canada, the ethanol industry is developing momentum, now that ethanol's environmental, economic, energy, rural development, and renewable attributes are being more widely recognized. Although the industry is still in its infancy, with only a few small-scale plants producing ethanol, consumer demand has prompted several gasoline retailing chains to feature ethanol blends, with demand for ethanol exceeding our domestic production.