[razor4077]

Not good for people like me who own pre-2001 cars. Even the Santro it seems is not E10 compatible :(

Does anyone know if the 4G92 Mivec is E10 compatible?

[wanderlustindia]

Was watching a bulletin on CNBC TV-18 a couple of days back. They were running the story about E10 petrol. Looks like the EGoM (empowered group of ministers) are hell-bent of putting this into practice. Although SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, correct me if I got this wrong!) wants the Govt. to take a modular approach to this issue rather than going all out.

The other side of the story is that the time-frame of Oct'08 for implementation of E10 petrol is rather too aggressive. The PSU oil firms like IOC, BP and HP are awfully short on production capabilities for E10. Which makes me wonder how the Govt. plans to enforce E10 by Oct'08, given the fact that the production capabilities may not ramped up overnight. Beats me!

[jaibir]

Originally Posted by rajshenoy

Does it mean the petrol that we get currently is E5 ? i am a bit confused..

The ethanol blending required for E5 fuel was compulsory legislated at a state level. Till bout mid-2006, Maharastra was about the only state where ethanol blending was compulsory. At that time also, there was talk of eathanol blending being made compulsory at an all India level. I haven't kept touch with the situation since then and only came across news on the subject on the forum.

On the cost differential, I don't think producing ethanol is substantially cheaper for the oil companies. In addition, it is a major headache to get reliable supply of ethanol. This used to be tough in Maharastra itself, which is a large sugarcane producing state. The oil companies are going to have a tough time setting up supply lines in other parts of the country.

On an aside, it might be a good idea to buy sugar futures expiring end 2008/early 2009 on the commodity exchange (not sure if the instruments exist though!). If sugarcane is going to be used to make ethanol, sugar is going to get pretty expensive ...

[gkrishn]

Originally Posted by jaibir

On an aside, it might be a good idea to buy sugar futures expiring end 2008/early 2009 on the commodity exchange (not sure if the instruments exist though!). If sugarcane is going to be used to make ethanol, sugar is going to get pretty expensive ...

There were lot of sugar companies that are listed. You can buy them....

Seriously i don't think this will get implemented. Just like so many other things, this(E10 norm) will also get diluted.

[jaibir]

On the plus side, ethanol does have a higher octane count than regular petrol. I forget what the precise number is for pure ethanol, but as far as I can remember its around 110 (this is from a session on fuel technologies I attended a couple of years back so a little rusty). If they keep the octane count of refinery fuel constant and just add ethanol to it, we might end up with slightly higher octane fuel's being sold as normal .

Originally Posted by gkrishn

There were lot of sugar companies that are listed. You can buy them....

don't think the sugar companies are going to make much extra money. like with the oil marketing companies, their margins won't go up just because the end product price does. if there were some listed sugarcane growers, that would be another matter ....

[Hyundai.Lover]

Hey!! what about TATA 1 lakh car? is it E10 compatible? God knows what will happen after its launch. XX,XXX booking waiting for it i guess or X,XX,XXX bookings?
Anyways what about its E10 Compatibility? People need to spend more to make it E10?

[amit_mechengg]

ethanol + adulteration really sucks the engine life. mainly the valves get corroded. pitting is the main scene there. indian government can do anything to make money.
most of the two wheelers mainly the old technology donkey splendors and CD100 whose valves are very very thin are really aftected. i have seen a reddish brown coloured acidic susbstance formed on the valves when the engine was opened.