The most burning issue in the Indian motoring community of late has been fuel. That intentional PJ aside, the fact remains: vehicle owners have been crying foul ever since the Union government advanced its plans to roll out E20 nationwide – five years before it was originally intended. 

Videos have been made, experts have weighed in, and even a PIL was filed (and later dismissed by the Supreme Court). Yet the controversy refuses to die down. 

At its core, the fuss is less about ethanol itself and more about two things: consumers not being given a choice, and motorists not seeing any cost benefit from ethanol blending. Something that should have followed the introduction of ethanol blending.   

How it all started

In June 2018, the government announced the National Policy on Biofuels, setting a target of blending 20 percent ethanol with petrol by 2030 under the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme.

In fact, ethanol blending is not new. Since 2003, ethanol-blended petrol (up to 5 percent) has been available in India. But both adoption as well as awareness remained abysmal. The big change came with the current government, which changed the cap from 5 to 10 percent. 

By 2018 a roadmap was in place. In June 2021, NITI Aayog released a detailed study on the shift to E20 (20 percent ethanol mix). Tests showed that cars designed for pure petrol but tweaked to run on E10 (10 percent ethanol) lost about 7 percent fuel efficiency. While no major metal damage was found, some plastic and polymer parts wore out faster when not designed for E20.

Importantly, the Aayog report recommended tax incentives on E10 and E20 to compensate consumers. 

SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers) assured the government that manufacturers would be ready to roll out E10-compliant vehicles by April 2022, and that these would be capable of calibration for E20. It was also assured that by April 2025, the manufacturers would be ready to produce vehicles that were specifically designed to run on E20. 

The need for blending

Even the most hardened critic of ethanol-blended petrol will not be able to deny that there are incredible benefits to blending. 

If done properly, and with all stakeholders on board, ethanol-blended petrol can deliver big benefits. The most important thing is to reduce India’s dependence on fossil fuels. Since the country imports nearly 85 percent of its fuel, even partial replacement with ethanol improves energy security. And because the raw materials for first-generation ethanol – like sugar, starch, and oils from plants – are already produced in India, the supply can largely be met domestically.

It was an atmanirbhar idea.

Then there is the fact that ethanol-blended petrol burns cleaner than pure petrol. While E10 produced 20 percent less carbon dioxide, E20 produced 30 percent lower CO2 as pure petrol. Not a soul in our choked cities would ever argue against the benefits of vehicles that are spewing lower volumes of CO2. Ethanol blending is so successful that there are countries that mix as much as 85 percent, and it’s used in motorsports. 

Clearly, as far as fuel goes, it’s the opposite of what passes muster in the world of whiskies. Here, blended seems to be better than single origin. 

What went wrong

It’s a difficult question to answer, in the face of conspiracy theories, expert opinions that dot the Internet and half-truths that are peddled by angry consumers based on their own anecdotal evidence. 

At the very least, the answers are complex.

The start of this can be traced to a decision by the government, as early as 2020, to advance E20 rollout by a full half decade. Considering that SIAM had assured the government of manufacturers’ willingness to produce vehicles that would be E10 compliant and capable of being adapted to E20, this shouldn’t have been an issue. As long as E10 or E5 or pure petrol remained available as protection grade fuel for vehicles that were non-compliant. As a matter of fact, the original rollout plan had recommended at least E10 remain available at pumps. 

What happened in reality, however, was that starting March 2025, nothing but E20 was made available at regular petrol stations. Unless, of course, you’re willing to pay extra for premium petrol like Bharat Petroleum’s Speed or Hindustan Petroleum’s Power or Indian Oil’s XP95. 

So the first thing to go awry was the removal of choice from the consumer. 

The fact that this was done without even the necessary awareness campaign – something that the report actually recommends – let alone consent (informed or otherwise) angered consumers when they realised that they were getting fewer kilometres to the tankful. 

The 6-7 percent drop in fuel efficiency seen during lab tests under ideal conditions changed quite a bit in the real world with its dirty air, variable tyre pressures and differences in maintenance levels between individual cars. In a country like India, where fuel prices have a deep impact, both on people’s lives and minds, this drop in economy did nothing but hurt. 

The final nail in the coffin was the government’s steadfast refusal to give off the tax incentives that the report had recommended. So, the consumer pays the same price as before but gets a shorter range from a tankful of petrol.

Small wonder then that he feels shortchanged. 

The real worry

Although ethanol-blended petrol has far too many benefits and not enough downsides, there are some real worries nonetheless. 

From an environmental perspective, sure it burns cleaner but sugarcane and paddy, which are the primary sources of the first gen ethanol that India is using, consume a staggering 70 percent of the country’s irrigation waters, reducing availability of water for other crops. Even the NITI Aayog report suggests a need for a more sustainable method of ethanol production. 

For the consumer, the cost implications are obvious. Pay more, get less. Why? Because most of the vehicles simply don’t have engines that are designed to run at peak efficiency using E20. 

For an engine to run efficiently, the first thing that they need would be a higher compression ratio to deal with the blended fuel, which has a higher octane rating than the pure petrol that was earlier available in India. While most manufacturers have since come out and declared that their vehicles were compliant and will run on E20, no one is yet saying that their vehicle is specifically designed to run on E20 and will offer a higher efficiency and performance than before. Which is what should happen if E20 were used in an engine that was designed to take just that. It’s a telling difference. 

Finally, the consumer will have to deal with some amount of degraded components because older cars simply weren’t designed for this fuel. But that’s also a long-term or mid-term issue since components typically don’t harden overnight.

The component degradation issue is a far bigger worry for people who are associated with the historic vehicle movement, running vintage and classic cars, since those cars were built and crafted using far more rudimentary materials than modern cars. But that’s a whole new story. 

The work around

Honestly, there are limited options. The first is to switch to a more premium petrol and therefore pay more. The satisfaction of seeing the old indicated range return on the vehicle’s display feels good. Until one realises that it all equalises in view of the extra cost borne to get the old range. At least the components won’t degrade. 

Switch to electricity and bypass the issue altogether. Which isn’t a bad option really, considering the fact that the differential pricing between a petrol car and an equivalent EV is reducing and so is range anxiety with better battery tech. The catch is, EV options are still few compared to regular internal combustion engine vehicles. 

The most likely option, however, is that the consumer will fume, fret, shout and then settle into suffering. More so, since the Supreme Court of India summarily threw out a PIL on the issue when the Union government argued that the move benefits the country’s sugarcane farmers. 

But what if…

The tragedy of it all is that it could have worked. The blend has benefits. Real benefits that could help the environment and consumers. It would also have been a step towards energy security for a nation heavily dependent on imports. 

If only, the well laid rollout plan hadn’t been scuppered by a botched implementation that has only angered consumers and divided the country even more.

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