Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) recently organised a tech demonstration on ‘Ethanol Adoption – Flex Fuel Vehicles in India’. Several two-wheeler manufacturers and Maruti Suzuki from the PV segment were a part of this event. It was done to demonstrate the readiness of automobile manufacturers for ethanol adoption through multiple segments of FFVs that will be launched in the next 2-3 years.
The government of India has mandated SIAM to promote ethanol as a transportation fuel jointly with the Ministry of Heavy Industries. The important deadlines for pan India implementation of E-20 are 2023 for vehicles to be material compliant and 2025 for vehicles to be fully E-20 compliant.
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By 2025, each automaker will have to launch at least one product in their line-up that can run on E-20 fuel (20% ethanol and 80% petrol). Maruti Suzuki, TVS Motor Company, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India, Suzuki Motorcycle India, Yamaha Motor India and Royal Enfield participated in the exposition and showcased their flex fuel technology.
Nitin Jairam Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India, commented, “Ethics, Economy and Ecology & Environment are the most prominent three pillars of our society. We need to have technology that we can use to convert waste to wealth. Therefore, it’s our responsibility to spread awareness and impart education about ethanol-blended petrol and its benefits, compared to traditional fuel.”
He added, “The Automobile industry has created 4cr jobs that are highest in India with a size of 7.5lakh crore of Industry size at present and foreseeing to reach Rs 15 lakh crore in next 5 years. The sugar manufacturers of India who have played an important part in the current ethanol milestones of the nation will reap similar economic benefits working towards sustainability together.”
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Vinod Aggarwal, President, SIAM, CEO & MD, Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles, said, “The Indian automobile industry and SIAM have been proactive in supporting the government’s vision, leading to adoption of E10, 5 months ahead of schedule. We are now aligned for rolling out E20 material-compliant vehicles from April 2023 and production of E20-tuned engine vehicles from April 2025 and the Indian automobile industry has developed products to enable this shift.”
