In India the oil companies to increase their profit, has started mixing ethanol with petrol. For the normal petrol, there is 20% ethanol blending with petrol. And there is XP10, where the ethanol blending gest reduced to 10% but the cost gets increased. You will also get XP5 where the ethanol blending is just 5% but the cost is almost doubled.
PC: Pixabay.com
The problem with the end customer is that there is a huge problem with the ethanol blending. The problems are
Reduced Fuel Economy - The mileage or the fuel economy gets reduced considerably with the ethanol blending. For me the mileage gets reduced from 42km/l to around 38km/l. Do eventually you have to pay extra to travel.
Potential Engine Damage - The engine of the car or bike, which is not made for ethanol blending gers damage if you use it. And thus the engine gets damage more early than actual life.
Maintenance Cost - With engine damage the maintenance cost gets increase substantially. Also if you have to do engine modification so that it works with the ethanol blending then also it is a increased cost.
No Insurance Claim - The insurance companies have denied claim if the engine or any damage because of ethanol blrnded petrol. And thus it again is a problem for the end user.
With these disadvantages owning a petrol vehicle is not worth it. Now the problem is not 20% ethanol blending. The problem is say you get a vehicle whose engine is supported with 20% ethanol and the oil company increase the blending from 20% to 25% then what. Until and unless you get a vehicle which is supported withal the variants, then engine damage is inevitable.
If you are thinking of owning a vehicle, then the best option as of now is to have a EV vehicle or a vehicle which doesn't have petrol. As of now there is blending in the petrol only, but not on diesel. So a diesel or LPG or EV car is much better option as of today than the petrol vehicle.
In my case I have a bike which is 7 years old and I am ok with engine getting damaged slowly because it is nearing its end of life and I anyway wants to change the vehicle after 10 years, so another 3 years is remaining for my vehicle. The next vehicle would be EV only.
