E20 fuel mileage impact limited to 3-3.5%: Maruti Suzuki's Rahul Bharti

Maruti Suzuki's Rahul Bharti said E20 fuel has 3-3.5 per cent lower calorific value than E10 petrol, adding that driving and maintenance factors cause wider mileage variation

The calorific value of E20 fuel is lower than that of E10 by about 3 to 3.5 per cent, and the mileage impact is limited to this extent, Rahul Bharti, senior executive officer, corporate affairs, Maruti Suzuki, said today.

 

He was speaking as part of an industry panel addressing the media on the E20 ethanol-blended petrol programme. The media interaction was organised by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), along with the Ministry of Heavy Industries and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

 

"On mileage, Shri Bharti stated that the calorific value of E20 is lower than that of E10 by about 3 to 3.5 per cent, and the mileage impact is limited to this extent. Illustrating, he said that for a car giving 20 km per litre, the impact works out to roughly 0.6 km per litre, whereas factors such as tyre pressure, driving pattern, correct gear usage, acceleration, braking and maintenance cause far greater variation in mileage," MoPNG said in a statement, adding that this loss in mileage is more than compensated by better acceleration, better anti-knocking, and far lower pollution in the case of ethanol against pure petrol.

   

Bharti clarified that vehicles are designed with factors of safety well beyond E20 compliance, and that no retrofitment kit is being offered in the market, with such solutions confined to R&D at present. He gave a "statement of confidence" to customers, stating that vehicles designed for E10 have been tested with E20 fuel across all parameters, with no areas of concern.

 

"He informed that of the 2.84 crore cars serviced by Maruti Suzuki in FY 2025-26, more than 1.5 crore were over three years old and hence not E20-certified, and no E20-related issues of corrosion, wear and tear or damage to component life were reported from the field," the ministry said.

 

Toyota Kirloskar Motor's country head and executive vice-president Vikram Gulati, who was also part of the panel, informed the media that the recently launched E85 dispensing stations are meant exclusively for flex-fuel vehicles, marking the direction of future policy.

 

He described ethanol as a high-performance and clean fuel in use since the early 1900s and even in Formula racing, adding that the decision to move to E20 was taken only after rigorous testing on older vehicles.

 

The press conference was also addressed by Vartika Shukla, former chairman and managing director, Engineers India Limited (EIL); Ashutosh Varma, chief business officer, Hero MotoCorp; Prasad Krishnan, senior vice-president, TVS Motor Company; Puneet Anand, associate vice-president, Hyundai Motor India; and Manpreet Singh Bindra, circle head — sales (north and east), Urbanite Business, Bajaj Auto.

 

"It was highlighted that ethanol blending has been a measured, scientifically driven, step-by-step process, and vehicle owners were reassured that E20 fuel poses no cause for concern," the ministry said.

 

Speaking to the media, Shukla said that E20 fuel conforms to the BIS standard and BS-VI emission norms and is uniformly available across retail outlets in the country, and that several countries have used ethanol blends for many years.