Who Pays For Ethanol?
7/16/202643 min
India rolled out E20 ethanol petrol five years ahead of schedule, and consumer complaints followed just as fast: mileage drops, rusted tanks, replaced parts. But how much of that is the fuel, and how much is old fuel systems never built for it? Government and industry voices point to savings, farmer income, and lower emissions; consumers point to unchanged prices and vague warranty coverage. Neither side fully answers the other. What's missing is clarity: who tested what, who pays when parts fail, and whether the timeline moved faster than the safeguards meant to accompany it. In this episode of The Morning Brief, ET's energy and auto experts Kalpana Pathak and Shally Seth Mohile speak to Randheer Singh, former Director at NITI Aayog and CEO of ForeSee Advisors and Bharati Balaji, Deputy Director General of the All India Distillers Association about the concerns, economics, trade-offs and future of India's ethanol programme.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsKalpana Pathak· Host0:00
[car engine sputtering] [car engine starting] That sound of sputtering engines, that's what a lot of car and bike owners across India are hearing lately. For months now, people are complaining of falling mileage and vehicle breakdowns due to the use of E20 blended petrol.
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:30
I drive a Volkswagen Virtus. I was driving down Gurgaon, and the car suddenly broke down. The engine just shut off. Next day, the representative told me that I have a faulty pump issue. Apparently, there were 20-plus cars in the same service center with the same issue because of ethanol fucking blending.
Speaker 3· Soundbite0:47
In 15 days its entire carburetor got damaged, the entire tank inside got rusted.
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:51
The entire, I don't know what kind of garbage has accumulated in it.
Speaker 4· Soundbite0:54
It seems like juice of sugarcane.
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:54
See the corrosion, there is rust everywhere. In this, look here, how much rust is there.
Speaker 3· Soundbite0:57
E10 car owners or E0 car owners have two major problems. There is a problem in the injector. The second is that there is rusting in the fuel tank of some cars.
Speaker 5· Soundbite1:05
Recently, my 2022 car broke down on the way two days ago and later it turns out that the spark plugs of my car are blown. The service center said that this could also be due to adulteration in the fuel. So earlier due to E20, my entire mileage got spoiled and now this expense of spark plugs.
Kalpana Pathak· Host1:19
But the government has repeatedly dismissed these claims.
Speaker 6· Soundbite1:23
There are 20 crore two-wheelers on the road. There are 20 lakh four-wheelers using