Toyota to unveil India's first flex-fuel powered car on Sept 28, says Gadkari

Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday announced that Toyota will be unveiling a new car that will be powered by flex-fuel on 28th September. This will be the first flex-fuel powered vehicle in the Indian market. This piece of information was announced at the 2nd Automobile Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA) Annual Session. The minister did not reveal which model will Toyota reveal. However, he did say that he will be unveiling the new flex-fuel powered car himself in New Delhi.

What is flex-fuel?

Flex fuel is a short form of flexible fuel. It can be considered as an alternative to petrol that many vehicles use. It is made by a combination of petrol and ethanol or methanol.

Flex fuel is cleaner for the environment because ethanol or methanol burns more efficiently than petrol which leads to less pollution. Ethanol can be sustainably produced from products such as sugarcane and corn. So, mixing ethanol seems like a better proposition instead of importing petrol from other countries. Some countries like Brazil, Germany and France are already using flex fuel and flex-fuel engines.

Speaking of flex-fuel engines, not every engine can run on flex-fuel. A regular engine can run on only one type of fuel whereas flex-fuel engines can take up to 83 per cent of ethanol mixed with petrol. However, a traditional engine can be tweaked in order to support flex-fuel.

Why is India eyeing flex-fuel technology?

India is focusing on flex-fuel because as of now most of our fossil fuels are imported through other countries. Adoption of flex-fuel will help in reducing India's carbon footprint as well as boost the economy because India's local economy as ethanol will be produced locally. Moreover, India's dependency on other countries will reduce as the import of fossil fuels could also reduce.