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vasudeva · 17th August 2007, 13:27

[quote=superamerica;534644]I saw an ad in today's TOI bangalore edition from Honda claiming all its cars are E10 ready (10% ethanol mix with Petrol). I did read about this E10 being considered by the government for enforcement sometime back as this link says.

To say that there is an extra cost to making it E10 compliant implies that automakers want to increase prices. Automakers are suffering from lower margins because of tougher selling conditions (higher fuel prices, higher interest rates). It is just as big a fraud on ignoramuses as Honda touting its `tech for tomorrow'. All cars are naturally E5/E10 compliant, and Brazil has been using e10 for more than 30 years. It just shows that automakers who complain about rising costs of e10 compliance are either fooling the public or selling 50-year old technology. Why 50 years, say 80 years. Ethanol as an automotive fuel has its origins in the early 20th century. In the US, ethanol was used to fuel cars well into the 1920-1930s. However, by the 1940s, fuels from petroleum and natural gas became available in large quantities at low cost, eliminating the economic incentives for ethanol production. Interest in ethanol was renewed in the 1970s with the oil supply disruptions in the Middle East and sharp hike in oil prices. Many oil companies began to market ethanol as a gasoline volume extender and as an octane booster.

That being said, in India, even E5 has been beset by procurement problems. In fact with lower sugar prices, sugar industry is now lobbying for E10 because it gives them more revenues to compensate for the free fall in sugar prices expected over the next 1 year.As compared with selling price of around Rs. 19-21.50/litre, the cost of production of ethanol depends on the price of molasses, which fluctuates widely during the sugar season. The present average cost of ethanol production is estimated at Rs. 16-18/litre. However, with expected record sugarcane and sugar output during 2006-08, and low sugar and molasses prices, the cost of production of ethanol is expected to remain low and the sugar industry may find it economically viable to supply ethanol for e5 and e10.

17th August 2007, 13:27	#9 (permalink)
vasudeva Senior - BHPian Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Delhi Posts: 1,192	[quote=superamerica;534644]I saw an ad in today's TOI bangalore edition from Honda claiming all its cars are E10 ready (10% ethanol mix with Petrol). I did read about this E10 being considered by the government for enforcement sometime back as this link says. To say that there is an extra cost to making it E10 compliant implies that automakers want to increase prices. Automakers are suffering from lower margins because of tougher selling conditions (higher fuel prices, higher interest rates). It is just as big a fraud on ignoramuses as Honda touting its `tech for tomorrow'. All cars are naturally E5/E10 compliant, and Brazil has been using e10 for more than 30 years. It just shows that automakers who complain about rising costs of e10 compliance are either fooling the public or selling 50-year old technology. Why 50 years, say 80 years. Ethanol as an automotive fuel has its origins in the early 20th century. In the US, ethanol was used to fuel cars well into the 1920-1930s. However, by the 1940s, fuels from petroleum and natural gas became available in large quantities at low cost, eliminating the economic incentives for ethanol production. Interest in ethanol was renewed in the 1970s with the oil supply disruptions in the Middle East and sharp hike in oil prices. Many oil companies began to market ethanol as a gasoline volume extender and as an octane booster. That being said, in India, even E5 has been beset by procurement problems. In fact with lower sugar prices, sugar industry is now lobbying for E10 because it gives them more revenues to compensate for the free fall in sugar prices expected over the next 1 year.As compared with selling price of around Rs. 19-21.50/litre, the cost of production of ethanol depends on the price of molasses, which fluctuates widely during the sugar season. The present average cost of ethanol production is estimated at Rs. 16-18/litre. However, with expected record sugarcane and sugar output during 2006-08, and low sugar and molasses prices, the cost of production of ethanol is expected to remain low and the sugar industry may find it economically viable to supply ethanol for e5 and e10.