The ethanol-in-petrol row: Could E10 make comeback alongside E20?

On its part, the government has been trying to allay fears, saying the drop in mileage in older vehicles would be 3-5% at most, and would be outweighed by E20’s benefits as it is a superior fuel. It has also consistently rejected claims that E20 fuel could damage engine components.

Questions have also been raised on why motorists aren’t being offered the choice of pure petrol, E10 and E20 fuels. Some Opposition leaders have also raised questions over this lack of choice.

The discussions, described as “preliminary” and “keeping the older vehicles in mind”, are being held on various technical as well as non-technical aspects of the country’s complex fuel retail supply chain, and no concrete conclusions have been arrived at yet, sources indicated. They said the backlash from certain quarters against E20 and the lack of choice for consumers, specifically those with older vehicles, particularly two-wheelers, that were certified for E10 petrol, led to the initiation of these discussions.

In July, the government had said that offering multiple grades of base fuel across the country would create an “enormous logistical challenge”, apart from raising costs and reducing operational efficiencies in India’s complex fuel retail network.

It also said that the current base fuel E20 is cleaner and superior than pure petrol and lower ethanol-petrol blends, has required massive investments, and that reverting to a lower blend level will not be prudent on various counts.

Petrol is the second most consumed petroleum fuel in India – about 43 million tonnes of petrol was consumed in the country in 2025-26.

But a rethink now appears to be on the table. An opinion article co-authored by Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran, which appeared in The Indian Express Monday, called for lower ethanol-petrol blend, say E10, to also be available alongside E20 fuel. While the views expressed in the article were personal, this is the first instance of a high-ranking government official publicly calling for more petrol options to be made available.

“Restoring a lower blend at the pumps, say, E10, alongside the option to buy E20, would calm most public concern, lower total ethanol use instead of raising it, and protect the existing fleet while the retrofit programme catches up,” Nageswaran and Akash Poojari, a consultant in Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), wrote in their article.

A request for comment sent to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) on the matter did not elicit a response.

According to auto industry insiders, petrol vehicles manufactured and sold after April 2023 are considered fully E20-compliant as this was mandated under the Bharat Stage 6 (BS6) phase two emission norms. This means that all vehicles currently being sold by manufacturers are fully compliant with E20, but most vehicles that were sold prior to 2023 are not. The permissible life of a petrol vehicle in the National Capital Region (NCR) is 15 years, which means that cars manufactured in 2022 can be in use until 2037 under the current norms.

According to a senior oil industry official, making two base variants of petrol available simultaneously isn’t “simple and straightforward”, and would involve various complexities.

“It will be like introducing a new petrol variant altogether, that too in large volumes. Apart from the base fuel (E20), we do have two-three premium petrol variants, but their consumption is minuscule compared to the base petrol, so it is not too complicated to offer some volumes of such fuels along with E20. But if E10 is to be retailed in large volumes, it will require building an almost parallel supply chain as the existing one has shifted entirely to E20,” the industry official said.

Experts pointed out that most retail fuel outlets in India use single or dual underground tanks. Adding E10 alongside E20 would require replacing it with a dual tank system for petrol at thousands of petrol pumps, apart from equipping them with separate dispensers for the base fuel.

The oil marketing companies (OMCs) would also have to manage duplicate supply chains, right from the blending stage at their facilities to the point of retail, with separate road tankers transporting two different petrol grades at scale while ensuring there is no cross-contamination. Refineries and terminals would have to run two separate automated blending processes simultaneously – one tracking a 10% ethanol mix and another tracking a 20% mix.

In a detailed frequently asked questions (FAQs) note released on July 10, the MoPNG had rejected the idea of offering multiple base petrol variants at fuel stations. The ministry reiterated this view throughout the recently-concluded Monsoon Session of Parliament while responding to questions from MPs.

“…if a cleaner, faster and less-polluting fuel is available, why would we deliberately choose an inferior alternative? The suggestion that every petrol pump should stock pure petrol, E10 and E20 simultaneously also ignores the realities of India’s fuel distribution network. India operates over one lakh retail outlets, supported by an extensive network of refineries, terminals, depots and pipelines. Maintaining multiple grades of base petrol across this vast supply chain would create an enormous logistical challenge, increase handling costs, complicate inventory management and reduce operational efficiency,” the MoPNG had said in its FAQ note.