Union Road Transport and Highways minister Nitin Gadkari on  said the government has advised carmakers to start manufacturing vehicles with flex fuel engines within the next six months. Flex-fuel, or flexible fuel, is an alternative fuel made of a combination of gasoline and methanol or ethanol.

“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-6 Norms in a time bound manner within a period of six months,” Gadkari said in a Twitter post.

The minister further said that in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat and government’s policy on promoting ethanol as a transport fuel, “Flex Fuel Vehicles are capable to run on a combination of 100% petrol or 100% bio-ethanol and their blends, along with strong hybrid electric technology in case of FFV-SHEVs.”

“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 added.

Earlier, addressing an event, Gadkari had said, India imports petroleum products worth Rs 8 lakh crore every year, and if the country continues to depend on fossil fuels, then its import bill will rise to Rs 25 lakh over the next five years. Gadkari believes the use of flex-fuel engines can cut India’s fuel import bill substantially at the same time improving the earnings of farmers.