'India on track for E20 rollout by 2025, will save ₹35,000 crore in import bills'

India is currently dispensing E20 fuel (petrol blended with 20 percent ethanol) at more than 3,300 stations across the country, and the same will be available pan-India by 2025, Union petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.

Speaking after Union road minister Nitin Gadkari had unveiled Toyota Kirloskar Motor's electrified flex fuel prototype, Innova Hycross, Puri pointed out that country had made an eight-fold jump in ethanol blending, from 1.5 percent in 2014 to 11.5 percent as of March 2023.

"This has helped us not only to make big savings in the import bills, but also has contributed to lowering of carbon emissions," Puri said, adding that the country had advanced its E20 blending target by five years to 2025. 

Puri estimated that E20 implementation by April 2025 could decrease India's import bill by around ₹35,000 crore a year, with oil import displacement of around 63 million barrels in the first year.

"This will further contribute to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 21 million metric tonnes and PM 2.5 emissions up to 14 percent than gasoline," Puri stated.

Earlier, Toyota Kirloskar Motor unveiled the world's first Bharat Stage 6 (Stage II) Electrified Flex Fuel Vehicle prototype, a car capable of running on both flex fuel engine as well as an electric powertrain, thereby offering higher use of ethanol combined with better fuel efficiencies.

India's transport sector accounts for about half the country's oil demand, and the sector's energy consumption is expected to double to 200 million tonnes of oil equivalent in 2030.