Sabitgarh: Even as India’s auto industry pushes hard for electric vehicles (EVs) as the future of clean mobility, Toyota Kirloskar Motor has urged the government to extend incentives to hybrid flex-fuel vehicles powered by ethanol, calling them a better long-term clean fuel option, reports Mint.
Vikram Gulati, Toyota’s country head and executive vice president for corporate affairs and governance, told Mint that ethanol-based hybrid flex-fuel vehicles can deliver the lowest emissions when measured across their full lifecycle, not just tailpipe output.
He said such vehicles also offer protection from geopolitical risks, especially at a time when China’s influence over the EV supply chain has raised concerns.
Gulati said tax incentives and relaxed emission norms for flex-fuel hybrids would encourage manufacturers to scale up production. “We are globally the most competitive in internal combustion engines. This supports the future of internal combustion technology. It is not a bad technology,” he said, adding that an internal combustion engine running on clean fuel can be as clean as any other technology.
He noted that engines powered by hydrogen or pure ethanol can achieve some of the lowest emission levels. Flex-fuel vehicles can run on any blend of ethanol and petrol, and India currently blends 20% ethanol with petrol to reduce crude oil imports.
Gulati acknowledged that running vehicles entirely on ethanol can reduce efficiency. He said combining ethanol with strong-hybrid or plug-in hybrid systems would help deliver much longer driving ranges—possibly more than EVs.
Toyota’s stance comes even as India’s largest automakers lobby for EVs to be prioritised under future clean mobility policies. The debate is underway as the government prepares the third phase of corporate average fuel efficiency (CAFE-III) norms. In the draft norms issued on 25 September, one EV will count as three cars for emissions calculations, while a hybrid flex-fuel car will count as 2.5.
Toyota argues that when emissions are assessed from raw material to end of life, ethanol-based flex-fuel hybrids outperform other technologies.
Gulati also said that completely phasing out internal combustion engines is not economically viable for India. “The Indian automotive industry has a turnover of ₹20 trillion, and nearly all of it comes from internal combustion engines. About 15% of tax revenue comes from the sector. ₹88,000 crore goes to states as road tax. Losing this would be a non-viable outcome,” he said, adding that ethanol offers a sustainable path forward.
The sugar industry has welcomed Toyota’s push. Industry representatives say India’s ethanol production capacity far exceeds the quantity being used. According to the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), India can produce 19 billion litres of ethanol annually, but oil marketing companies have contracted only 10.5 billion litres for fuel blending.
“Now that capacities are in place, but consumption is stuck at 20% blending, we need to work on increasing ethanol use,” ISMA director general Deepak Ballani said at an industry event on Thursday.
Ballani said flex-fuel vehicles offer a major opportunity for cutting carbon emissions and making full use of India’s domestic ethanol resources.
Toyota and the sugar industry’s renewed push comes months after consumer complaints that ethanol-blended fuel was lowering vehicle mileage. While Toyota promotes locally developed hybrid ethanol technology, companies such as Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra continue to back EVs as the preferred option for India’s clean mobility transition.
