Centre allays concerns over E20, says blending target already met
New Delhi, Aug. 13 -- India has achieved its target of mixing 20% ethanol with petrol nearly 10 months earlier than the 2025-26 deadline set by the government, but drivers appear to be wary of blended gasoline impacting engines and fuel economy of cars, especially older vehicles, concerns the petroleum ministry said are "unfounded".
Many drivers have taken to social-media platforms of late, complaining about lower mileage with blended petrol and poorer drive quality. There have been doubts if insurance and warranty were rendered void with using petrol with 20% ethanol, known as E20.
The petroleum ministry on Tuesday clarified that blended petrol didn't invalidate vehicle insurance.
Automobiles "tuned" for E20 delivered better acceleration and drivability, the ministry said, adding that the government's high-priority ethanol-blending programme had substantially cut pollution and saved foreign exchange that goes into oil purchases.
"On most parameters, there are no issues," the ministry said to quell growing consumer skepticism. Oil marketing companies achieved the E20 goal in July, after having reached 19.92% in the previous month, with an output of 66 billion litres of ethanol during 2024-25, official data show. Of this, 25.5 billion litres came from grains and the rest from molasses, a byproduct of sugar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in 2021 advanced the target of blending petrol with 20% ethanol by five years to 2025-26 to cut emissions and the nation's oil import bill. The strategy has saved India nearly Rs.1.44 lakh crore in crude import costs between 2014 and 2024, according to official data, helping cut an estimated 54.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
In a social-media post on August 2, the ministry did say that ethanol, which is of lower energy density than petrol, resulted in a "marginal decrease in mileage, estimated at 1-2% for four-wheelers designed for E10 and calibrated for E20, and around 3-6% in others".
The Centre had hastened the E20 programme with a raft of measures to help turn sugarcane molasses and grains, such as rice and maize, into ethanol, which is mixed 20 parts to 80 parts of petrol. Sugar mills were given soft loans to add distillation capacity to make ethanol....
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