Flex-Fuel has become a popular topic in the news again recently. The Minister for Road Transport and Highway at today’s meeting has asked the manufactures to make flex engines and the government is looking forward to it. A flex-fuel vehicle means that the vehicle can entirely run on either ethanol or a blend of petrol/ethanol. It has a lower calorie value so that a higher quantity needs to be burned to achieve optimum combustion.
As per the current situation, the ethanol fuel pegged at Rs 62-63 per litre, which is much lower than that of petrol priced at Rs 104/litre. Gadkari said that the country is capable of producing an excess amount of rice and wheat. In the earlier times, ethanol in its current form was generated from sugarcane juice and today it can easily be extracted from rice, corn and food grains. He also said that other countries like Brazil, the US and Canada are already into flex engines that are powered by farm produce and exhorted automakers like BMW, Mercedes and Toyota are going to introduce new vehicles which can run on alternative fuel. TVS is one of the most popular motorcycle companies that have developed an ethanol-run motorcycle. The TVS Apache RTR200 E100 Fi model was shown by the company in the year 2019 but was never available to the customers in the showrooms. Gadkari also said that a switch towards locally produced ethanol would be much more helpful for countries like India, which rely on crude oil imports to power the transport sector. Gadkari also assured that the flex engine would be less polluting and economic. The government would be able to implement the ethanol scheme within the next three months, said Gadkari. 100 per cent of ethanol pumps are going to be opened and in fact that two of them have already been opened in Pune.
Are you ready to buy a flex-fuel vehicle in India? With BS6 cars, bikes which are currently present in India, it said that the vehicle is compatible with both ethanol-mixed petrol. The current ratio is that there is only 20 per cent ethanol mixed with petrol but it is set to increase exponentially. By doing this, we can reduce oil imports significantly. This in turn helps the exchequer to saves some money.
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