Overview
- The Ministry of Petroleum issued a question-and-answer note on July 10 that reconfirmed E20 as the single national petrol standard and ruled out offering pure petrol or E10 nationwide.
- The government says maintaining three nationwide fuel grades would need separate storage, inventory and distribution at refineries, depots, pipelines and over 100,000 fuel stations, raising costs and operational complexity.
- Technical studies by ARAI, Indian Oil and SIAM estimate typical fuel-efficiency falls of about 3–4 percent with E20 and up to 6 percent for some vehicles, and they report faster deterioration of some rubber fuel-system parts while finding no widespread metallic engine corrosion.
- Legal and political pressure has grown after petitions reached the Supreme Court and Attorney General R. Venkataramani’s reference to the rollout as an “experiment” went viral, prompting opposition calls for a rollback or independent testing.
- Millions of motorists report larger-than-expected mileage drops and higher repair bills, and the dispute could lead to court-ordered tests, clearer guidance on older-vehicle use, or new consumer redress rules while the government defends E20 as a tool to cut crude imports and support farmers.