Gadkari unveils World’s 1st electric flex fuel vehicle prototype compliant with BS-6 norms

Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday unveiled the prototype of the world’s first electric hybrid flex fuel vehicle that runs on ethanol and is compliant with India’s stringent BS-6 emission norms.

The prototype is a Toyota Innova Hycross model developed by the Toyota Kirloskar joint venture in India. This Strong Hybrid Electric Vehicle (SHEV) can run 40% of the distance on ethanol and 60% of the time in electric mode with the petrol engine switched off.

Unveiling the vehicle, Gadkari said that the flex vehicle  was a dream come true as he had been pursuing this goal since 2004 when he visited Brazil to get first hand knowledge of how ethanol blended vehicles run.

He said the technology would reduce emissions and help the country fight climate change also come as a big boon to farmers as they would get a higher price for their sugarcane used in the production of ethanol.

Flex fuel is a technology that allows an engine to run on more than 20% ethanol blended petrol.

India has set a target of achieving ethanol blending in petrol of up to 20% by 2025-26.

Electrified flex fuel vehicle technology was introduced in Brazil in 2019 but the emission norms there do not meet India’s stringent BS-6 norms.