‘Car giving 12-13 km per litre is now giving 9-10’: Delhi mechanics on E20 fuel impact

By mid-morning, Mayapuri Scrap Yard in Delhi settles into a steady rhythm of work. A mechanic is beneath a hatchback balanced on a hydraulic lift. Nearby, another wipes grease from his hands before listening to a customer describe a familiar frustration.

“The mileage has dropped,” the customer says.

Online, motorists trade stories of engines failing, fuel systems corroding and repair bills mounting. In the workshops, however, the picture is more subdued.

The common complaint

After speaking to mechanics across the Capital, The Indian Express found little evidence of a surge in engine failures linked to E20 petrol. Instead, garages reported a rise in complaints of reduced fuel efficiency, with drivers saying mileage has dropped by 5% to 30%.

“We’ve not got any vehicles that suffered some damage due to E20 petrol,” says 32-year old Rupesh Kumar, bent over the open bonnet of a WagonR at Mayapuri Scrap Yard, considered Asia’s biggest.

“I am only getting the same business that I have gotten over the last 10 years, no change over the last year or so,” he shouts out amid the constant clanking and clattering of auto parts.

Rupesh Kumar fixing a car at the Mayapuri scrap yard. (Express Photo by Devansh Mittal)

Kumar, however, adds that many cars are repaired at company workshops, not by small mechanics like him. “Maybe those complaints are getting fixed there, but I don’t know,” he says.

Across town, Neeraj Sharma, owner of Sonu Auto Engines in South Delhi’s Zamrudpur, also says the most common complaint is mileage drop. “I got two Skoda cars recently, which had an issue of jerking and pickup loss, but apart from that we have not received any major complaints about this,” he says.

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“But I am hearing of mileage drop everyday. A car which gives around 12-13 km per litre, is only giving now 9-10 km per litre,” he adds.

Last year, India achieved 20% ethanol blending in petrol, five years before target. E20 fuel, denoting 80 parts petrol to 20 parts of ethanol, is now the standard petrol variant nationwide.

The government has also admitted that there is an issue with mileage. Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari in an interview with The Indian Express said that because the calorific value of ethanol is lower than petrol, the average mileage can dip as ethanol content increases in the fuel.

No much evidence of engine damage

In Zamrudpur’s auto market, Ashok Saini, who runs a car workshop, points out that though he has only been hearing about complaints on social media, his workshop has not gotten any car owners complaining of damage to their vehicles. “Maybe this fuel will lead to wear-and-tear in the long term, but not so soon,” he points out.

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“Those who are telling their customers that any faults are due to ethanol are not knowledgeable enough. Koi dikkat aati hai gaadi mein toh vo bol rahe hai ethanol ki galti, kyunki customer pehle se gusse mein hai hi, araam se maan jaayega (If there’s any fault, they are attributing it to ethanol, because the customer is already angry because of it, so it is easy to make them pay),” Saini adds.

Long-term concerns remain

Some mechanics believe filling E20 fuel in internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, especially older ones, could see some components getting corroded if the vehicle lies unused.

At the workshop of K K Automobiles, also in Zamrudpur, owner 49-year old Laxman Sarpal says that while some of his customers have come to him with complaints of a mileage drop, none of the cars his workshop has fixed saw damage to parts.

But he believes that if petrol is left in the car for too long, some parts like a fuel pump, injector or the throttle might get rusted.

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“See, ethanol has water, so some parts might get corroded. If the car is running continuously and petrol is getting consumed, then there’s no issue,” he says.

This is due to ethanol’s hygroscopic nature that promotes water uptake. Hygroscopy refers to the property of a substance to attract and hold water molecules from the surrounding environment, either through absorption or adsorption.

His advice? Keep driving your car, don’t leave it idle for two weeks.

Other factors

Central Delhi’s Karol Bagh is a veritable paradise for bike lovers. On Sunday, it is chock-full of bike owners getting their silencer fixed, latest accessories installed and fancy stickers peeled.

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Chetan Prakash in Karol Bagh. He has been fixing two-wheelers for the last 30 years. (Express Photo by Devansh Mittal)

“Nowadays, fuel injectors and filters are getting choked a lot as carbon gets deposited on them,” says Chetan Prakash, who has been fixing two-wheelers in Karol Bagh for the last 30 years.

“Since the past six-seven months, I am getting at least one complaint every day of some or the other part getting choked, and the bike not starting immediately,” he adds.

Lakhbir Singh (50), busy fixing brake pads in a narrow street in West Delhi’s Karampura, also says that he rarely got complaints of the fuel filter getting choked earlier, but now receives them regularly. “That could be because of ethanol, but I’m not sure,” he adds.

Lakhbir Singh at Karampura in West Delhi. (Express Photo by Devansh Mittal)

Shakir, working at Hunnar Automotives in Karol Bagh, points out that these complaints are because the newer Bharat Stage-VI engines have such minute parts that they get choked easily, not because of ethanol-blended petrol.

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According to 46-year old Danny Kakkar, owner of Sagar Auto Parts in Karol Bagh, the government must have done scientific testing of ethanol blended fuels before introducing it.

“I don’t think it causes any damage to vehicles, but due to social media, people are concerned about their vehicle’s health,” he says, pointing out that sales of Petrol System Cleanser and Decarboniser (PCD), a liquid to add to the petrol to dissolve carbon, gum, and varnish deposits in your carburetor or fuel injectors, have gone up massively.

“Earlier we used to sell one every four days. Now I am selling around 25 a day,” he says.