Maruti to develop E85-compatible flex-fuel engines

Maruti Suzuki is working on new flex-fuel engines compatible with up to 85 percent ethanol blended petrol (E85 fuel). Vehicles equipped with these engines will be capable of running on a wide spectrum of ethanol-petrol fuel blends, including pure petrol and E85.

E85 petrol has 51 to 85 percent ethanol. It requires a re-engineering of an engine’s internal components.  E85 will likely be a less expensive alternative to petrol and diesel fuels. Flex-fuel cars could be launched by late 2023.

While there are no government directives to introduce E85 fuel yet, it has a target to make all cars compatible with E20 fuel (20 percent ethanol, 80 percent petrol) by 2025.

The recent push for ethanol and ethanol-blended fuels and other alternative fuels is part of a larger effort to reduce the country’s dependence on crude oil imports as well as the emissions from road transportation.