The government has advised automotive manufacturers in India to start manufacturing Flex Fuel Vehicles (FFV) and Flex Fuel Strong Hybrid Electric Vehicles (FFV-SHEV) engines with BS-6 norms within a period of six months, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Monday. FFVs can run on a combination of 100 per cent petrol or 100 per cent bio-ethanol and their blends, while FFV-SHEV can also run on strong hybrid electric technology. In a series of tweets, Gadkari said that the government's move will help in substituting India's import of petroleum as a fuel and also provide direct benefits to farmers.
He said the move is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' and government's policy on promoting ethanol as a transport fuel. Also Read: Winning Air India bid most important milestone of 2021: Tata Sons chairman's letter to employees
"Flex Fuel Vehicles are capable to run on a combination of 100 per cent petrol or 100 per cent bio-ethanol and their blends, along with strong Hybrid Electric technology in case of FFV-SHEVs", he said.
The move will help India in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles and complying with its commitment made at COP26 summit to reduce the total projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes by 2030, Gadkari added. In a release, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said that the government is enabling the use of various alternate fuels in an effort to shift from fossil fuels. "In order to accelerate the introduction of Flex Fuel vehicles, the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme has included automobile and auto components and auto components of flex fuel engines," it said. Besides, government think tank NITI Aayog has formulated a road map for ethanol blending for 2020-2025 period, it added. The ministry said immediate steps need to be taken to introduce FFV vehicles. "It is expected that higher percentages of ethanol will be blended in gasoline in the next five years, requiring availability of flex engine vehicles," it said.
Also Read: How to invest Rs 1 crore in 2022? Here are the clues