Government working to allow ethanol blending beyond E20 via flexi-fuel vehicles: Tarun Kapoor

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more.

Unlock these with Subscription

The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective.

First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming.

Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day.

Science For All The weekly newsletter from science writers takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in!

Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers

THEdge At the cutting edge of education and careers

Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there

Gender Agenda Stories from beyond the binary.

The Hindu On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features.

Updated - October 26, 2026 06:07 pm IST - New Delhi

“The government is working to permit ethanol blending beyond the current E20 level, enabled by flexi-fuel vehicles,” advisor to the Prime Minister Tarun Kapoor said on Wednesday (September 9, 2026).

Also Read: Government amends motor vehicle rules to permit pure ethanol flex-fuel vehicles

Addressing virtually the fourth edition of The India Sugar & Bio-Energy Conference 2026, Mr.

Kapoor said the E20 programme has been "very successful" so far and several automobile companies have announced plans to roll out flexi-fuel vehicles soon.

"Now our focus is on going into flexi-fuel vehicles and allowing blending at a percentage which will be higher than E20," he said, adding that availability of pure ethanol at fuel outlets will need to be expanded alongside the rollout of such vehicles.

Mr.

Kapoor said the push for biofuels has become more critical amid the West Asia crisis, which has disrupted supplies and pushed crude oil prices to nearly $100 a barrel, with fears of a further increase.

"It is important that we try to have whatever is available in the country," he said.

He said ethanol production capacity in the country has surpassed requirements for blending, and the industry will need to explore additional uses for ethanol to utilise this surplus capacity fully.

Responding to recent criticism over E20 blending, Mr.

Kapoor said much of it stemmed from misinformation or "motivated reasons," and that studies have shown E20 performs well, with any marginal decline in fuel efficiency offset by higher octane content.

On the diesel segment, Mr.

Kapoor said the government is looking at biofuel-based additives, noting that experiments with isobutanol could open up a "large" new avenue for biofuels if successful, as diesel accounts for a significant share of refinery output.

ALSO WATCH What’s the link between sugar, ethanol and India’s CAFE norms? | Climate Economy

He also referred to the government's new GOBARdhan scheme, which brings together incentives from various Ministries to promote compressed biogas (CBG), an area where progress has been limited so far.

Mr.

Kapoor urged ethanol manufacturers to diversify into CBG production and other value-added by-products such as potash.

“The government remains "totally committed" to the biofuels sector and will work to ensure existing investments face no uncertainty as the market expands,” Mr.

Kapoor said.

economy, business and finance / business (general)

Terms & conditions | Institutional Subscriber

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences.

They cannot be abusive or personal.

Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform.

If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles.

If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments.

Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.