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Informist, Tuesday, Jul. 7, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – Aam Aadmi Party Convener Arvind Kejriwal Tuesday demanded to know from two major automobile companies in India--Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. and Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd.--why the owner manuals of cars manufactured and sold by them contradict the claims made recently by their senior executives about the use of petrol blended with 20% ethanol. 

 

"Both companies' owner manuals say that if your car faces fuel efficiency or driveability issues with E10 petrol (petrol with 10% ethanol), switch back to unleaded zero ethanol petrol," Kejriwal told a press conference here. "But their senior officials are now claiming, under government pressure, that there would be no problem in using E20 fuel (petrol with 20% ethanol) with E10-compliant cars."

 

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, along with the Ministry of Heavy Industries and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, had hosted a press conference jointly with automobile companies Saturday to defend the 20% ethanol-blending programme. Representatives from Maruti Suzuki, Toyota Kirloskar, Hero MotoCorp Ltd., Hyundai Motor India Ltd., Bajaj Auto Ltd., and TVS Motor Co. Ltd. were present at the press conference.

 

Kejriwal, who holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in mechanical engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, blasted Maruti Suzuki, Toyota Kirloskar, and Hero MotoCorp for "lying" to consumers. "These companies are claiming that there will be a minor 3-4% mileage drop and no damage to your vehicle by E20 petrol, but people are facing up to 30% mileage drop," he said.

 

There have been reports of people facing difficulty with their vehicles, including sudden breakdown, after the government rolled out mandatory E20 petrol from Apr. 1. The former Delhi chief minister pointed out that the countries that use ethanol-blended petrol have taken decades to make the transition. "Japan currently uses less than 2% ethanol blend," Kejriwal said. "They are targeting to roll out E20 by 2040. That is 16 years. Thailand, even after 18 years of introducing E20, still has parallel option of E10. The much-cited Brazil took 50 years to transition to E100. But the Narendra Modi government imposed E20 on people within three years, with no parallel option."

 

"Do not lie to your customer" under government pressure, Kejriwal told the automobile companies. "Governments come and go, but if customer trust is gone, what will you do?" He added that he will be writing to the companies to seek written guarantees of compensation if vehicles manufactured by them suffer a mileage drop beyond 3-4%, or if there is damage to the vehicle's fuel system from use of E20 petrol.  End

 

Reported by Asim Khan

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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