Centre asks automakers to start producing BS-VI compliant flex-fuel vehicles in 6 months

The move will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles on a well-to-wheel basis, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said

The Centre has advised auto-mobile manufacturers to start producing flex-fuel vehicles and flex-fuel strong hybrid electric vehicles complying with BS-VI emission norms within six months.

"In order to substitute India’s import of petroleum as a fuel and to provide direct benefits to our farmers, we have now advised the automobile manufacturers in India to start manufacturing flex-fuel vehicles (FFV) and flex-fuel strong hybrid electric vehicles (FFV-SHEV), complying with BS-VI norms in a time bound manner within a period of six months", Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Monday.

“This move will drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles on a well-to-wheel basis, helping India to comply with its commitment made at COP26 to reduce the total projected carbon emissions by one billion tonnes by 2030,” Gadkari tweeted.

The minister also said that flex-fuel vehicles are capable of running 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.

"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 & auto components and auto components of flex-fuel engines. NITI Aayog, after acknowledging the strong foundation for the ethanol blending programme (EBP), has formulated the road map for ethanol blending for the period, 2020-2025," said a statement from the Ministry of Road Transport.

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