Brazil will have its first electrical engine, hydrogen-fuelled bus in 2006, according to the graduate engineering program at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. It is ''the vehicle of the future'', because it does not pollute and makes little noise, said project coordinator Paulo Emilio de Miranda.

Dozens of similar buses circulate in industrialized countries, but Brazil has the advantage of a highly developed passenger vehicle industry that has joined the initiative, and the prototype will cost about half what the European versions did.

The environmentally friendly bus will be 12 meters long, with a capacity for 109 passengers and able to travel 300 km between refueling.