Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari urged automakers to roll-out flex fuel vehicles capable of running on 100% ethanol into the Indian market within a year's time durng a meeting held on Tuesday
Flexible fuel vehicles are designed to run on petrol or petrol -ethanol blends with upto 83% ethanol. India plans to achieve 20% ethanol blending by 2025.
Mr. Gadkari has also appealed to all private vehicle manufacturers to compulsorily provide a minimum of six airbags across all variants and segments of vehicles in the interest of passenger safety, according to a press statement from the Ministry.
The CEOs from the Society of India Automobile Manufacturers comprising private, commercial and two-wheeler automobile manufacturers have, however, reiterated their demand for deferment of fuel efficiency norms (Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency Phase -2) and second stage of Bharat Stage VI emission norms.
As of now, the CAFE-2 norms are set to come into effect in 2022 and BS-VI stage II norms are set to come into force beginning April 2023.
