Flex-Fuel Cars To Be Available In India With Cheaper Fuel Costs, Know Details

As the name says, flex-fuel brings you the ability to get your car to run on fuel mixed with ethanol.

Flex Fuel Car

You might be hearing about flex-fuel cars and fuel along news that car-makers will soon offer them. However, what exactly is flex-fuel? In reality, it is nothing new and has been developed for many years being on sale in other markets.

As the name says, flex-fuel brings you the ability to get your car to run on fuel mixed with ethanol. It is similar to a standard gasoline engine except it needs to have some components for it to run on petrol/ethanol or petrol/methanol. The engines also would be flexible to run on any blend either full petrol or ethanol. Compared to an EV, a flex-engine is basically a standard petrol engine with some additional components to run on more than one fuel or blend. Hence compared to an EV the flex engine is more practical and easier to make with less cost required.

So more than EVs, flex engines could be a future solution to which our Government is also bullish. The Government will announce guidelines and mandate car makers to offer flex-fuel engines in the future. Plus being more practical than EVs, the current fuel pumps will offer bio-fuels alongside petrol/diesel. For the customer, it would also mean lower costs with bioethanol costing much less per litre than petrol at about Rs 65 vs Rs 100 plus for petrol.

Car-makers would have to make significant investments through and you will see the first cars with flex engines in India by FY 2022 or later. Compared to EVs, this seems more practical and would lower fuel import bills too. However, cars with flex engines could be more expensive than standard petrol cars.