IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/annopr/v176y2010i1p333-34810.1007-s10479-009-0514-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Valuing the switching flexibility of the ethanol-gas flex fuel car

Author

Listed:
  • Carlos Bastian-Pinto
  • Luiz Brandão
  • Mariana Lemos Alves

Abstract

Renewable energy sources are becoming more important as the world’s supply of fossil fuels decrease and also due to environmental concerns. Since 2003, when the ethanol-gasoline flex fuel car became commercially available in Brazil, the growth of this market has been significant, to the point where currently more than 50% of the fuel consumption of cars in Brazil is from renewable biofuels (ethanol). This has been made possible due to the success of the flex fuel car, which can run on ethanol, gasoline, or any mix of these in the same fuel tank, and which is sold at a premium over the non-flex models. Flex fuel cars, on the other hand, provide the owner with the flexibility to choose fuels at each refueling stop. Given the uncertainty on future prices of ethanol and gas, this option adds value to the owner since he can always opt for the cheaper fuel whenever he fills up his car. We use the Real Options method to analyze the value of the flex fuel option assuming both a Geometric Brownian Motion and Mean Reverting diffusion processes for the prices of gasoline and ethanol and compare the results arising from both methods. We conclude that the flex option value is significant using either method and twice as high as flex premium charged by the car manufacturers, which helps explain the success that this type of automobiles have gained in Brazil since 2003. Our results also indicate that consumers should be willing to purchase flex fuel cars even if manufacturers increase the flex premium. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010

Suggested Citation

  • Carlos Bastian-Pinto & Luiz Brandão & Mariana Lemos Alves, 2010. "Valuing the switching flexibility of the ethanol-gas flex fuel car," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 333-348, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:annopr:v:176:y:2010:i:1:p:333-348:10.1007/s10479-009-0514-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s10479-009-0514-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10479-009-0514-7
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10479-009-0514-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schwartz, Eduardo S, 1997. "The Stochastic Behavior of Commodity Prices: Implications for Valuation and Hedging," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(3), pages 923-973, July.
    2. Avinash K. Dixit & Robert S. Pindyck, 1994. "Investment under Uncertainty," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 5474.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Taylor-de-Lima, Reynaldo L.N. & Gerbasi da Silva, Arthur José & Legey, Luiz F.L. & Szklo, Alexandre, 2018. "Evaluation of economic feasibility under uncertainty of a thermochemical route for ethanol production in Brazil," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 363-376.
    2. Alexander, Carol & Chen, Xi & Ward, Charles, 2021. "Risk-adjusted valuation for real option decisions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 1046-1064.
    3. Ana Garcia-Bernabeu & Antonio Benito & Mila Bravo & David Pla-Santamaria, 2016. "Photovoltaic power plants: a multicriteria approach to investment decisions and a case study in western Spain," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 245(1), pages 163-175, October.
    4. Bertolini, Marina & D'Alpaos, Chiara & Moretto, Michele, 2018. "Do Smart Grids boost investments in domestic PV plants? Evidence from the Italian electricity market," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 890-902.
    5. Alcino Azevedo & Dean Paxson, 2018. "Rivalry and uncertainty in complementary investments with dynamic market sharing," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 271(2), pages 319-355, December.
    6. Ghoddusi, Hamed, 2017. "Blending under uncertainty: Real options analysis of ethanol plants and biofuels mandates," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 110-120.
    7. Sendstad, Lars Hegnes & Chronopoulos, Michail, 2020. "Sequential investment in renewable energy technologies under policy uncertainty," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    8. Brito, Thiago Luis Felipe & Islam, Towhidul & Stettler, Marc & Mouette, Dominique & Meade, Nigel & Moutinho dos Santos, Edmilson, 2019. "Transitions between technological generations of alternative fuel vehicles in Brazil," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    9. Das Gupta, Supratim, 2021. "Using real options to value capacity additions and investment expenditures in renewable energies in India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 148(PA).
    10. Tenkorang, Frank & Dority, Bree L. & Bridges, Deborah & Lam, Eddery, 2015. "Relationship between ethanol and gasoline: AIDS approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 63-69.
    11. Nunes, Luis Eduardo & Lima, Marcus Vinicius Andrade de & Davison, Matthew & Leite, André Luis da Silva, 2021. "Switch and defer option in renewable energy projects: Evidences from Brazil," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    12. Bastian-Pinto, Carlos L. & Araujo, Felipe V. de S. & Brandão, Luiz E. & Gomes, Leonardo L., 2021. "Hedging renewable energy investments with Bitcoin mining," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    13. Ahmed Al sharif & Ruwen Qin, 2015. "Double-sided price adjustment flexibility with a preemptive right to exercise," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 226(1), pages 29-50, March.
    14. Trigeorgis, Lenos & Tsekrekos, Andrianos E., 2018. "Real Options in Operations Research: A Review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 270(1), pages 1-24.
    15. Nadarajah, Selvaprabu & Secomandi, Nicola, 2023. "A review of the operations literature on real options in energy," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 309(2), pages 469-487.
    16. Kozlova, Mariia, 2017. "Real option valuation in renewable energy literature: Research focus, trends and design," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 180-196.
    17. Briest, Gordon & Lauven, Lars-Peter & Kupfer, Stefan & Lukas, Elmar, 2022. "Leaving well-worn paths: Reversal of the investment-uncertainty relationship and flexible biogas plant operation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 300(3), pages 1162-1176.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Luis M. Abadie, 2009. "Valuation of Long-Term Investments in Energy Assets under Uncertainty," Energies, MDPI, vol. 2(3), pages 1-31, September.
    2. Guedes, José & Santos, Pedro, 2016. "Valuing an offshore oil exploration and production project through real options analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 377-386.
    3. Abdullah Almansour & Margaret Insley, 2016. "The Impact of Stochastic Extraction Cost on the Value of an Exhaustible Resource: An Application to the Alberta Oil Sands," The Energy Journal, , vol. 37(2), pages 61-88, April.
    4. Chen, Shan & Insley, Margaret, 2012. "Regime switching in stochastic models of commodity prices: An application to an optimal tree harvesting problem," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 201-219.
    5. Seiji Harikae & James S. Dyer & Tianyang Wang, 2021. "Valuing Real Options in the Volatile Real World," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(1), pages 171-189, January.
    6. Julien Chevallier & Benoît Sévi, 2014. "On the Stochastic Properties of Carbon Futures Prices," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 58(1), pages 127-153, May.
    7. Insley, Margaret, 2017. "Resource extraction with a carbon tax and regime switching prices: Exercising your options," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 1-16.
    8. Luis M. Abadie & José M. Chamorro, 2009. "Monte Carlo valuation of natural gas investments," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(1), pages 10-22, January.
    9. Insley, M.C. & Wirjanto, T.S., 2010. "Contrasting two approaches in real options valuation: Contingent claims versus dynamic programming," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 157-176, April.
    10. Fleten, Stein-Erik & Näsäkkälä, Erkka, 2003. "Gas fired power plants: Investment timing, operating flexibility and abandonment," MPRA Paper 217, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jun 2006.
    11. Ozorio, Luiz de Magalhães & Bastian-Pinto, Carlos de Lamare & Baidya, Tara Keshar Nanda & Brandão, Luiz Eduardo Teixeira, 2013. "Investment decision in integrated steel plants under uncertainty," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 55-64.
    12. Richter, Martin & Sørensen, Carsten, 2002. "Stochastic Volatility and Seasonality in Commodity Futures and Options: The Case of Soybeans," Working Papers 2002-4, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Finance.
    13. Sunnevag, Kjell, 1998. "An option pricing approach to exploration licensing strategy," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 25-38, March.
    14. Kou, Ying & Luo, Meifeng, 2018. "Market driven ship investment decision using the real option approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 714-729.
    15. Bastian Felix, 2012. "Gas Storage Valuation: A Comparative Simulation Study," EWL Working Papers 1201, University of Duisburg-Essen, Chair for Management Science and Energy Economics, revised Apr 2014.
    16. Marcel Philipp Müller & Sebastian Stöckl & Steffen Zimmermann & Bernd Heinrich, 2016. "Decision Support for IT Investment Projects," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 58(6), pages 381-396, December.
    17. Hervé-Mignucci, Morgan, 2011. "Rôle du signal prix du carbone sur les décisions d'investissement des entreprises," Economics Thesis from University Paris Dauphine, Paris Dauphine University, number 123456789/8200 edited by Keppler, Jan Horst.
    18. Taylor-de-Lima, Reynaldo L.N. & Gerbasi da Silva, Arthur José & Legey, Luiz F.L. & Szklo, Alexandre, 2018. "Evaluation of economic feasibility under uncertainty of a thermochemical route for ethanol production in Brazil," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 363-376.
    19. Margaret Insley, 2013. "On the timing of non-renewable resource extraction with regime switching prices: an optimal stochastic control approach," Working Papers 1302, University of Waterloo, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2013.
    20. Nordal, Kjell Bjørn, 2009. "A real options approach for evaluating the implementation of a risk-sensitive capital rule in banks," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 132-141, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:annopr:v:176:y:2010:i:1:p:333-348:10.1007/s10479-009-0514-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.