The government of India is about to make E20 the norm in the coming years (by 2025) which has a lot of car owners concerned regarding the compatibility.
The biggest question in the minds of some car owners today is whether E20 is bad for your car or not. For the unversed, E20 refers to 20% of Ethanol mix in petrol. Most petrol pumps today dispense E10 petrol (10% Ethanol). The engines and related components of modern cars can run E10 without any modifications. However, once the Ethanol content rises, some parts need upgrades to ensure that there is not damage. Now, if all petrol pumps in the country start offering E20 petrol only, a natural question arises, will the millions of existing cars be compatible? Well, that is exactly what we are here to discuss today.
Why Is It Needed?
Before delving into this discussion, it becomes imperative to understand what the need for E20 is? So, there are some concrete advantages to using Ethanol-blended petrol in automobiles. The first massive advantage is that the overall crude oil import of the country goes down drastically. Note that India is the third-largest crude oil importer in the world. That is also confirmed by the video from Biturbo Media. To put things into perspective, in FY23, India imported $157.5 billion worth of crude oil. But with the ever-increasing ethanol mix in petrol, this number reduced considerably to $132.4 billion in FY24. Hence, this ensured that the Indian government saved a whopping Rs 2 lakh Crore in just one year with a minimal increase in Ethanol content.
Now you can imagine how much lower this number will go once the entire nation goes from 10% Ethanol to 20% Ethanol by next year. Secondly, since ethanol is produced from sugarcane and other such organic products, it limits the pollutants in the exhaust gas of a car. Therefore, this E10 or E20 fuel is critical to curb vehicular pollution to meet the ever-stringent-becoming emission norms. Finally, Ethanol is sourced from sugarcane. India is the second largest sugarcane manufacturer in the world. Therefore, producing ethanol will be beneficial for India’s farmers and it can be manufactured in bulk quantities. These are the top reasons which can have a massive impact on the country’s economy and carbon targets.
Is E20 Bad For Your Car?
Since Ethanol is not derived from crude oil or natural coal mines but from a plant, it doesn’t have as high energy density. This results in a slight decline in performance. On top of that, chemically speaking, ethanol has a bit different characteristics in comparison to petrol. For instance, it has a lower combustion/boiling temperature. This is the most relevant aspect during automobile combustion. You must have heard about knocking, mainly in petrol engines. It is nothing but the early self-ignition of petrol molecules during to high temperatures inside the cylinder which is called misfiring. Over a period of time, this phenomenon causes the engine to get damaged. That is why the compression ratios of petrol cars are much lower than those of diesel vehicles even though the compression ratio is directly proportional to efficiency.
When a significant amount of Ethanol is mixed with petrol, the overall combustion temperature threshold of the fuel can go down significantly. This would result in misfiring, causing the air-fuel mixture to burn autonomously before the spark plug ignites it. Finally, Ethanol has corrosive properties. When mixed in high percentages, these can cause engine parts to get damaged over longer usage. To tackle that, appropriate modifications are needed to be made to the engine and its components. The government of India asked car manufacturers to ensure that the engines of their cars from 2023 onwards comply with E20 fuel. Hence, we can expect the vehicles produced after 2023 to run on E20 without any issues.
However, the most concerning part is whether the old vehicles we be able to handle the E20 fuel. Sure, there might not be an immediate issue in these cars as soon as the new E20 fuel is used. Still, over time, components will get damaged. In fact, extremely old cars have begun reporting these issues as the concentration of Ethanol in today’s petrol increases. These include blown-out gaskets, corrosion, issues with the fuel system, performance, knocking, cold weather start, etc. Going forward, as the concentration of Ethanol rises in petrol further without any alterations to the engines, things are bound to get challenging. Furthermore, carmakers often mention in their user manuals that if you use a fuel which has a higher ethanol content than 10% or in some cases, 15%, any damage to the car will not be covered under warranty.
Our View
It is evident that this is a growing issue which is becoming tougher and tougher day by day. A lot of you might not notice, but the content of Ethanol in petrol is being increased by the Government with each passing day. I must mention that you must not think that this will take place suddenly one day and from the next day onwards, petrol pumps will start offering E20 petrol. The content of Ethanol in petrol is consistently going up as we speak. That is how the government wants to achieve the target of E20 by next year. I believe this could leave millions of car owners with countless issues over the next few years. This will be particularly true for cars manufactured prior to 2023. I expect the government and carmakers to show support for the customers to enable this transition. I shall keep an eye out for further developments in this regard.
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