Nitin Gadkari: Automakers must equip vehicles with flex engines

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari (File image)

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on September 24 that the government would mandate automakers in the coming months to power vehicles with flex engines.

"In the next 3 to 4 months, I will be issuing an order, mandating all vehicle manufacturers to power vehicles with flex engines (that can run on more than one fuel)," Gadkari said, as quoted by ANI.

Flex fuel vehicles run on a blend of petrol and ethanol or pure ethanol. Current regulations allow for a 10 percent blend only (E10) with a proposed 20 percent ethanol blend in petrol scheduled to be introduced in 2025.

Gadkari, earlier in September, announced that auto manufacturers would be required to add biofuel-compatible vehicles to their portfolio in the next six months.

While addressing a virtual event of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on September 22, the minister said India is shifting its public transport fleet to green fuels like bio-CNG, ethanol, methanol, electricity and green hydrogen,

"India is committed to an eminently achievable clean energy-based economy, through an annual road-map for production, supply of ethanol till 2025-26, and systems for its countrywide marketing," he said, as quoted by PTI.