Flex Fuel Vehicles

Subject: Environment

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Flex Fuel Vehicles

Flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs) have an internal combustion engine and are capable of operating on gasoline and any blend of gasoline and ethanol up to 83%.
Other than an ethanol-compatible fuel system and a different powertrain calibration, FFVs are similar to their conventional gasoline-only counterparts.
While fuel economy (miles per gallon) is generally lower with increased levels of ethanol (engines are optimized for gasoline), many FFVs have improved acceleration performance when operating on higher ethanol blends.

FFVs in India

In India, Carmakers will most likely miss the advisory deadline issued by the Centre over start of production of FFVs by June as availability of ethanol as a fuel itself has been a problem for the government.
These vehicles, which can potentially run on 100 per cent petrol or 10 percent ethanol, were to get commercially launched before June-end.
Instead, they are working towards meeting the April 2023 deadline of making vehicles material-compliant for E20.
E20 is a blend of 20 per cent ethanol and 80 per cent petrol.
Carbon monoxide emissions were observed to be 50 percent lower in two-wheelers and 30 percent lower in four-wheelers compared to petrol under E20.