Road Transport Ministry issues advisory for manufacturing of flex-fuel vehicles

The Union Road Transport Ministry has issued an advisory to automobile manufacturers to start producing flex-fuel vehicles in the next six months, says Minister Nitin Gadkari. The ministry has urged the manufacturers to produce the Flex Fuel Strong Hybrid vehicles and both types of vehicles must comply with the BS-6 emission norms.

Gadkari, at an event in Ghaziabad, said that he signed an advisory on flex-fuel engines urging carmakers to manufacture flex-fuel engines. “We have asked them to start this production in the next six months so that vehicles can run on more than one fuel,” he said. “The new vehicles will have the option to run on 100% ethanol, which is produced by our farmers.”

The ministry has notified the emission standards for vehicles that can run on 100% ethanol and thereby created the legal framework for encouraging manufacturers to produce such engines. Industry experts believe the success of such vehicles will depend on the availability of ethanol as a fuel across the country.

The minister had earlier said there is no need to make it mandatory as Toyota, Suzuki and Hyundai have agreed to manufacture them. He said car costs would not go up once these engines are made mandatory. But making flex-fuel engines are costly as it requires certain additions to existing powertrains.

It should be noted that the flex-fuel engines has been added in the list of advanced Automotive Technology components as eligible products for incentivization under the scheme. The components under the PLI scheme include BS6 compliant (E 85) Flex-Fuel Engine, Heated Fuel Rail for Flex-Fuel Engine, Heating Element for Flex-Fuel Engine, Heating Control Unit for Flex-Fuel Engine, Electronic Control Unit (ECU) for Flex-Fuel Engine (Processor minimum 32 bits) and Ethanol Senor for Flex-Fuel Engine.

Sources have told the media that while the ministry expects the automobile manufacturers to roll out flex-fuel engines in the next six months, it may actually take up to a year to see such manufacturing in India, particularly for cars and other four-wheelers.

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There is a high possibility of two-wheeler manufacturers rolling out flex-fuel engines and a couple of major players in  this segment have made a commitment to the minister.