After making E20 fuel mandatory nationwide, the government should now push flex fuel vehicles – which run on both petrol and pure ethanol – by lowering the effective tax on such vehicles and making sure flex fuel is priced cheaper than petrol at fuel stations, Vikram Gulati, country head of Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), said.

Gulati said once a certain fuel blend is established in a country – E20 in India’s case – global examples suggest that the move should be towards promoting flex fuel rather than incrementally increasing the ethanol blend in petrol to 25 per cent or 30 per cent. India mandated E20 fuel compatibility for all new petrol-powered vehicles starting in 2023.

One of the key challenges due to gradual increases in fuel blends could be its impact on legacy vehicles, which Gula

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