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To reduce the rising prices of petrol and diesel in India and the dependence on crude oil imports, the Central Government has decided to take a very revolutionary step. The government has now started preparations to rapidly promote 100% ethanol i.e. E100 flex fuel in the country. Under this ambitious plan, the government is going to start 5,000 E100 fuel stations (Ethanol Pumps) across the country within the next two years. This big step will rapidly increase the use of Flex Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) in the country, which will not only reduce pollution but will also save India’s huge foreign exchange.

It is going to start from these big cities of the country.

According to the new roadmap prepared by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, this scheme will start from selected metros of the country. Within the next just one month, 150 E100 fuel stations will be opened in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. After this, in the next 6 to 12 months, this facility will be expanded to Delhi-NCR and rest of Maharashtra as well as big cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. The government aims to start 500 retail outlets in the first phase, which will be expanded to a total of 5,000 in the next 24 months.

Automobile companies are ready, just waiting for the launch

In view of this decision of the government, many big vehicle manufacturing companies of the country have fully geared up. Big companies like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp and TVS Motor Company have already prepared prototypes (models) of their vehicles running on flex fuel. However, due to shortage of E100 pumps in the market and lack of complete clarity regarding the price of this new fuel, companies have not yet launched these vehicles officially in the market. It is expected that as the number of pumps increases, these vehicles will start appearing on the roads.

The country will get big relief from huge import of crude oil.

Flex fuel vehicles actually come with engines that can run on both regular gasoline and high ethanol blend fuels without any issues. If this technology is completely successful in India, then the country can get a big relief from the expenditure of lakhs of crores of rupees on the import of crude oil. Talking about the figures, in the financial year 2025-26, India had imported crude oil worth about Rs 10.9 lakh crore from abroad, in which huge reduction will be possible after the introduction of this technology.

Meanwhile, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) believes that to make E100 fuel popular and attractive among the general public, it will be very important to keep its price about 30% lower than normal petrol. This is because running on pure ethanol reduces the mileage of vehicles slightly compared to petrol, which can be compensated only by the lower price.

The biggest challenge is to increase the demand for ethanol in the market.

Generating demand for ethanol remains the biggest challenge in this entire project. Earlier, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) had made E100 fuel available at about 400 pumps in the country as a pilot project, but during that time its demand remained negligible. Auto sector experts say that unless auto companies put a large number of flex fuel vehicles on the roads, it will be very difficult to increase the demand for E100. At present, 20% ethanol blending is being done in the petrol available in India, but now the government is preparing to take it to the next level and change the entire transport system of the country.