Toyota Camry, running only on ethanol, to launch in August: Nitin Gadkari

India will soon see cars and two-wheelers running only on ethanol-based fuel, or flex-fuel, and be a strong alternative to electric vehicles to battle out carbon emission. On Sunday, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said ethanol-based vehicles will soon be introduced in the country, starting with Toyota Camry which will be launched in August this year. Speaking at an event in Nagpur, Gadkari once again emphasised on the need to have vehicles that can run on alternative fuel besides electric vehicles to bring down pollution and reduce dependency on costly fossil fuel like petrol and diesel.

Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, has been a firm believer in the multi-faceted benefits of using green fuel as an alternate to petrol. While he says India can bring down its crude oil import bill significantly, adds that the switch to ethanol-based fuel can also be beneficial to the environment while being far more cost-effective to the end consumer. On Sunday, Gadkari said, “We are bringing new vehicles that will run entirely on ethanol. Bajaj, TVS and Hero scooters will run on 100 per cent ethanol."

During his speech, Gadkari announced that he will launch Toyota Camry in August, the first car in India which will be able to run solely on ethanol. Gadkari said that the luxury sedan will also be able to generate 40 per cent electricity.

India aims to achieve 20 per cent ethanol blending target by 2025. One of the key reasons the Centre is banking on alternative fuel is the rising cost of petrol and diesel. After a spate of hikes over the last couple of years, the price of both the conventional fuel has reached all-time high. Gadkari thinks ethanol provides a solution for those who do not want to go for EVs yet. "If you compare it with petrol, it will be ₹15 per litre of petrol because ethanol’s rate is ₹60 while the rate of petrol is ₹120 per litre. Plus it would generate 40 per cent electricity. The average would be ₹15 per litre," the minister said.

Ethanol is basically ethyl alcohol that is made from molasses, grains and farm waste. A study by ICRA claims that ethanol blending and electric vehicle adoption will go hand in hand in India in order to reduce vehicular pollution, which contributes 15 per cent to total emissions.