Toyota pitches for ethanol hybrids as India looks at electric future

Such a fuel would be insulated from geopolitical uncertainties at a time when China has put hurdles in the development of EVs, according to a senior executive of the company.

Offering tax relief and emission norm benefits to flex-fuel vehicles can help in pushing manufacturers to popularize such vehicles, Vikram Gulati, Toyota’s country head and executive vice president for corporate affairs and governance, told Mint in an interview.

He pointed out that ethanol-powered hybrid flex-fuel vehicles are the cleanest among all technologies if the entire lifecycle of the vehicle is seen instead of just tail pipe emissions.

“We are globally the most competitive in internal combustion engines. This helps to sustain that internal combustion engine technology. It's not a bad technology," he noted, adding that an internal combustion engine with clean fuel is as clean as any technology.

“For example, you could use an internal combustion engine with hydrogen. It's the cleanest, you could use it with pure ethanol. It's amongst the cleanest," Gulati said.

Flex fuel vehicles can run on any blend of ethanol with gasoline, including 100% gasoline. Currently, India blends 20% ethanol with petrol as part of its efforts to cut import dependence of crude oil.

Gulati said running a vehicle with 100% ethanol can hurt its efficiency, which is why the company is pushing for such vehicles to be combined with either plug-in hybrid or strong hybrid technologies, which will help in giving maximum range, even more than EVs.

Toyota’s pitch for such vehicles, backed by India’s sugar lobby that has an interest in the ethanol business, comes at a time when the country's top automakers are pushing the government to prioritize EVs as the future bet for clean fuel transition. Moreover, the comments also come at a time when the country is in the middle of finalizing the third iteration of corporate average fuel efficiency (CAFE-III) norms.

The country’s premier automobile lobby, the Society for Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), which wants more benefits for electric vehicle technology, has submitted a proposal to the government to provide maximum leeway in calculation of emission norms to EVs.

In the draft emission norms released on 25 September, the government has said it will count one EV as three cars during calculations while one hybrid car with flex-fuel technology will be counted as 2.5 cars.

However, Toyota says that seen from a full life-cycle perspective, which includes emission of a technology from raw materials to end of life, ethanol-powered flex-fuel vehicles will provide the maximum benefits.

Moreover, Gulati highlighted that a future without internal combustion technologies is a non-viable solution for the country's economy and automotive sector and, hence, ways should be found to help sustain the technology in the long run by combining it with ethanol and flex-fuel technologies.

“ ₹20 trillion is the turnover of the Indian automotive industry. Most of it—99% or 98%—is from internal combustion engine technologies. We showed that 15% of tax revenue is coming from automotive," Gulati explained.

“ ₹88,000 crore is going to states in terms of road tax. Now, imagine a future if, you know, these things were to disappear. So that is a non-viable outcome. It's better if you take this in the direction of sustainable energy. And that's why ethanol makes immense sense," Gulati said.

The call by Toyota to give priority to ethanol and flex fuel vehicles received a thumbs up from the sugar industry, whose representatives have repeatedly highlighted that capacity to produce ethanol in the country is way higher than what the country is using right now.

According to data presented by Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), the country currently has annual capacity for 19 billion litres of ethanol, but only 10.5 billion litres has been marked for procurement by oil marketing companies for blending with fuel.

“Now that the capacities have come, but today because we have too much capacity and the consumption, we are stuck at 20%. We need to work on enhancing consumption," Deepak Ballani, director general at ISMA, told reporters during an industry event on Thursday.

Renewed push

The top executives of the sugar industry believe that given the indigenous edge of the ethanol industry should prompt policymakers to prioritize how to enhance consumption.

“Flex fuel is perhaps the most important ecosystem. I believe this is the mobility solution which is perhaps the most important in terms of carbon emission reduction," Ballani said.

Toyota and sugar industry’s renewed push for ethanol and flex fuel vehicles comes months after there was an uproar over the blending of ethanol in oil, with many consumers complaining that ethanol was hurting the mileage of their vehicles.

While Toyota is pushing for an indigenous ethanol powered hybrid tech, carmakers like Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra have publicly called for electric vehicles to be prioritized for the clean fuel transition in India.

The writer is in Sabitgarh on invitation from the Indian Sugar Mills Association.