Key highlights
- E85 petrol pump inaugurated in New Delhi
- Priced at Rs 82.12 per litre
- Government plans to dispense E85 via 5,000 stations soon
While the debate on the benefits and disadvantages of the E85 fuel goes on, the Indian government has introduced the 85 per cent ethanol-blended petrol in India via the first fuel dispensing station in New Delhi. Learn all the details about it below.
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E85 petrol introduced: What to expect?
Pusa Road-based Indian Oil has become the first fuel station dispensing unit in New Delhi to offer the E85-blended petrol. The E85 fuel is a bi-fuel mix, which contains 85 parts of ethanol and 15 parts of petrol per litre. Since it is the first and the only fuel station to dispense E85 in India currently, the price of E85 is Rs 82.12 per litre, which makes it Rs 20 less than the E20 petrol.
While the government promised a substantial drop in fuel prices with the introduction of E85, the current rate is not justifiable. How? Let us explain. E85 sounds good on paper, but it is a lower-density fuel, which means it has less energy production. This directly affects the engine performance. Moreover, producing E85 vehicles is a costly affair. This can be explained by the Rs 6,000 price difference between the E20 Hero Splendor+ and the newly launched E85 Splendor+.
The core idea behind the introduction of higher ethanol blends is to reduce the tailpipe emissions, reduce India’s global dependency on crude oil, and push the local farm and agriculture segment to produce more sugarcane for locally-manufactured ethanol. With that said, E85 is here to stay, and the Union Minister Hardeep Puri has revealed that 50-100 E85 dispensing stations are soon going to open in Delhi-NCR, and this mark will touch 5,000 dispensing stations by the end of 2027.
What will happen to the old vehicles?
The government plans to introduce higher ethanol-blended petrol countrywide in the coming years. However, old BS4 and Phase 1 BS6 petrol vehicles will suffer a lot due to it. Since ethanol has lower energy density, and it is highly corrosive, old vehicles will not only suffer power loss and performance reduction, but they will also have to deal with regular mechanical failures like kaput fuel pumps, corroded fuel tank, and more.
However, some manufacturers have begun to introduce upgrade kits for old models. Royal Enfield introduced the E20 kit previously, and now rumours suggest that top-rated carmakers are also working on the same. Meanwhile, the government has also announced that it will soon roll out isobutanol-blended diesel, which is reported to have better energy density and less corrosive properties.
