Why Buying A Flex Fuel Vehicle Today Is A Bad Idea: We Explain
One of the most discussed topics on the internet lately is fuel price hikes and increasing ethanol blends. Many brands have already started working on flex-fuel engines, and some of them have even launched them in the market. The idea of a car or a vehicle capable of running on anything from regular petrol up to E85 or E100 sounds incredibly promising. However, like a coin, there is another side to this story, and that is not looking great as we write this article. Here is why we feel buying a flex-fuel vehicle today is not a good idea.
E85 is an 85 percent ethanol-blended fuel, and we are sure people who use cars and bikes in our country are already aware of this. Hero MotoCorp recently launched the E85-compliant Splendor+ and HF Deluxe motorcycles in the Indian market. Similarly, India’s largest car manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki, also launched the flex-fuel version of the WagonR hatchback.
When compared to standard versions or E20 versions of bikes and cars, manufacturers have to make changes to the engine. They have to revise the ECU calibration, upgrade components like the fuel pump and filter, and make several other modifications. All this is done to make the vehicle compatible with the higher ethanol blend in the fuel.
A cost is involved in this process, and that reflects in the final pricing too. The customer will have to pay a premium over the regular E20 version. In the case of the Hero motorcycles, the HF Deluxe was Rs 2,646 more expensive than the standard version, and the Splendor+ was Rs 5,153 more expensive. The WagonR Flex Fuel version is also Rs 86,000 more expensive than the standard E20 version. Anyone who buys an E85-compliant vehicle will have to pay more upfront while purchasing the vehicle.
One of the major concerns about E85 fuel is efficiency. E85 is not less fuel-efficient because it burns poorly. It is less efficient because it has a lower energy density compared to regular petrol or E20.
As the fuel contains less energy, the engine needs to burn a greater volume of fuel to generate the same amount of power and travel the same distance. What this means is that you have to visit the petrol pump more often than before.
E85 fuel was officially launched in India recently. In Delhi, it costs Rs 82.12 per litre, while E20 costs Rs 102.12 per litre. On paper, it looks like the customer is saving Rs 20 per litre and getting a better deal. However, Problems 1 and 2, which we explained above, make it difficult for E85 to prove its case.
Let’s take the Maruti WagonR as an example. The E85 version costs Rs 7.24 lakh, ex-showroom, which is Rs 86,000 more than the E20-compliant ZXI+ variant with a manual transmission. The ARAI-certified fuel-efficiency figure for the standard WagonR 1.2 MT is 23.56 kmpl.
While Maruti has not revealed the official ARAI figures for the flex-fuel version, it is expected to be around 25 percent lower than the standard version. This means the fuel-efficiency figure for the flex-fuel version is likely to be around 17.9 kmpl.
With the current fuel prices, the standard WagonR will have a running cost of Rs 4.33 per km, while the Flex Fuel version of the WagonR will have a running cost of Rs 4.61 per km. This is a difference of 28 paise per km. It may look like a very small difference initially, but in the long run, that minor difference is going to cost the customer more.
Because of this higher running cost, customers would actually end up spending more on fuel and would not even be able to recover the upfront cost difference of Rs 86,000. Under the current fuel prices, it is mathematically impossible.
E85 fuel is still new in the market, and availability remains an issue. The government aims to offer E85 fuel through 500 fuel stations across major cities like Delhi-NCR and Mumbai. It also plans to add about 5,000 such outlets across major cities in the country by the end of 2027.
So even if you buy a flex-fuel vehicle, the chances of finding E85 fuel at a pump near your home are currently low. This means the customer will have to pay for an E85-compliant vehicle but may still have to use E20 fuel because E85 is not available everywhere. In this situation, the customer ends up losing money on both the vehicle purchase and fuel.
Even if the fuel becomes readily available at pumps near you, the government will have to work extensively on the pricing of the fuel to make it financially viable for customers. It would need to be priced at around Rs 60–70 per litre to compensate for the lower fuel efficiency. Manufacturers would also have to work hard to make flex-fuel vehicles significantly more affordable in order to popularise them among buyers.