E20 fuel in Delhi: Mechanics report mileage drop up to 30%, but no surge in engine damage
By mid-morning, Mayapuri Scrap Yard in Delhi settles into a steady rhythm of work. A mechanic is beneath a hatchback balanced on a hydraulic lift. Nearby, another wipes grease from his hands before listening to a customer describe a familiar frustration.
“The mileage has dropped,” the customer says.
It is a complaint that mechanics across Delhi have been hearing increasingly over the past few months, as E20 petrol — now the standard fuel sold across India — has become the subject of intense debate.
Online, motorists trade stories of engines failing, fuel systems corroding and repair bills mounting. In the workshops, however, the picture is more subdued.
After speaking to mechanics across the Capital, The Indian Express found little evidence of a surge in engine failures linked to E20 petrol. Instead, garages reported a rise in complaints of reduced fuel efficiency, with drivers saying mileage has dropped by 5% to 30%.
“We’ve not got any vehicles that suffered some damage due to E20 petrol,” says 32-year old Rupesh Kumar, bent over the open bonnet of a WagonR at Mayapuri Scrap Yard, considered Asia’s biggest.
“I am only getting the same business that I have gotten over the last 10 years, no change over the last year or so,” he shouts out amid the constant clanking and clattering of auto parts.
Kumar, however, adds that many cars are repaired at company workshops, not by small mechanics like him. “Maybe those complaints are getting fixed there, but I don’t know,” he says.
Across town, Neeraj Sharma, owner of Sonu Auto Engines in South Delhi’s Zamrudpur, also says the most common complaint is mileage drop. “I got two Skoda cars recently, which had an issue of jerking and pickup loss, but apart from that we have not received any major complaints about this,” he says.
“But I am hearing of mileage drop everyday. A car which gives around 12-13 km per litre, is only giving now 9-10 km per litre,” he adds.
Last year, India achieved 20% ethanol blending in petrol, five years before target. E20 fuel, denoting 80 parts petrol to 20 parts of ethanol, is now the standard petrol variant nationwide.
The government has also admitted that there is an issue with mileage. Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari in an interview with The Indian Express said that because the calorific value of ethanol is lower than petrol, the average mileage can dip as ethanol content increases in the fuel.
In Zamrudpur’s auto market, Ashok Saini, who runs a car workshop, points out that though he has only been hearing about complaints on social media, his workshop has not gotten any car owners complaining of damage to their vehicles. “Maybe this fuel will lead to wear-and-tear in the long term, but not so soon,” he points out.
“Those who are telling their customers that any faults are due to ethanol are not knowledgeable enough. If there’s any fault, they are attributing it to ethanol, because the customer is already angry because of it, so it is easy to make them pay,” Saini adds.
Some mechanics believe filling E20 fuel in internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, especially older ones, could see some components getting corroded if the vehicle lies unused.
At the workshop of K K Automobiles, also in Zamrudpur, owner 49-year old Laxman Sarpal says that while some of his customers have come to him with complaints of a mileage drop, none of the cars his workshop has fixed saw damage to parts.
But he believes that if petrol is left in the car for too long, some parts like a fuel pump, injectors, or fuel lines could corrode over time. “If the car is used regularly, the ethanol doesn’t stay long enough to cause harm. But if the car sits idle for weeks, the ethanol can absorb moisture and lead to corrosion,” Sarpal explained.
