In a bid to meet the government target for the introduction of E20 fuel, Maruti Suzuki is working on the strategies around alternative fuels.
According to the media reports, the company has commenced work on an E85 capable (85 percent ethanol) engine. Also, carmaker’s model range will be E20-compliant by April 2023.
C V Raman, CTO, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, recently told ACI, that the company is developing engines that can operate on E85 (85% ethanol). All the passenger vehicles produced by the company will be enabled with E20 by April 2023, as per the government’s strategy to introduce E20 fuel.
Maruti Suzuki has always given importance to fuel efficiency all these years and unveiling E20 vehicles will strengthen the company’s strategy.
Currently, E85 engines are used worldwide for BS4 compliance and India would be the first country in the world to use E85 engines with BS6 compliance (equivalent to Euro 5 emission norms), he said.
The strategy of Maruti Suzuki is in line with the government’s policy to encourage the use of ethanol blended fuel for vehicles and the Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari’s push for use of the same.
It must be noted that, sugar industry body, Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), had also urged that to achieve 20 per cent ethanol blending steps should be taken to ensure that the Flex-Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) is launched in the country soon.
Flex-fuel engines can use both petrol and ethanol to run the vehicle. Ethanol is produced from sugarcane juice, corn, and others. It is considered a greener and cleaner fuel as compared to petrol and diesel. The government is already working on ethanol blending with petrol as alternative fuel which is much cleaner and emits fewer pollutants into the environment as against vehicles running on petrol.
