India is one of the world’s largest two-wheeler market with 20 million motorcycles and scooters and a country which accounts for crude oil imports worth $128 billion annually and the two-wheeler segment itself accounts for drinking 10% of the whole amount building up to $13 billion. Seeing all these situations the government of India has asked all the two-wheeler manufacturers to make only electric vehicles in the two-wheeler cader above 150 cc(cubic capacity/cubic centimeter) from 2025 onwards. This comes in line with the government policies which has been promoting non-conventional fuels to move towards becoming a nation which is more greener and independent energy hub in the world achieving energy security, being less dependent on other nations for energy needs.
Being one of the first to reciprocate to the governments and nations call for a greener, environmentally friendly vehicle TVS motor company has come up India’s first Ethanol powered motorcycle replacing the mainstream crude oil derivative fuels. The first concept of the bike was launched in auto expo 2018 in Delhi.TVS has chosen its evergreen brand Apache for bringing in the change in the industry. The vehicle is TVS Apache RTR 200 Fi E100 which has become the first vehicle in India capable of working completely with ethanol rather than the usual mix of petrol and ethanol.
TVS Apache is a brand having 3.5 million customers around the world. The vehicle is priced at Rs 1.20 lakh ex-showroom which is just Rs 11,000 higher than its crude oil powered brother.TVS also claims that ethanol fuel has also helped in increasing the performance of the vehicle. Ethanol is a biodegradable substance which can be categorized as biofuel. 35% of ethanol contains oxygen. Ethanol will also help to produce less carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and sulfur dioxide emissions thus reducing the air pollution.
Ethanol could be easily manufactured by sugar refineries. States like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra could play an important role in this green energy drive as they are among the largest sugar producing states in India. This could take the ethanol industry which is currently at Rs 11,000 crores to 20,000 crores easily. Our country currently does not have an ethanol fuel pump.
Mr. Nitin Gadkari union minister for road transport and highways has addressed this issue of the non-existence of ethanol pumps by promising to send a note to the ministry of petroleum to open ethanol pumps as soon as possible. Mr. Nitin has also asked TVS to introduce biofuel-powered vehicles in the three-wheeler segments.
Ethanol has been widely accepted in countries like Brazil in place of petrol, in our country currently one liter of petrol costs around Rs 72 and one liter of ethanol would cost you around Rs 52, ethanol is straight Rs 20 economical than petrol per liter. And it only takes around 1.3liters of ethanol to give you the same mileage as that of petrol offers for its one liter.
Due to lack of ethanol pumps currently and due to lack of availability of ethanol TVS will be launching it New Apache powered by ethanol only in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. They have plans to make the bike available pan India once ethanol is available on a national basis.
Now it’s time to see how the other players of the automobile industry react to this scenario. Will they step up their game in time to get the advantage of being one of the few options for buying a greener vehicle in the country.
OFFICIAL MEDIA PARTNER: NEWSWIRE
OFFICIAL PROMOTIONAL PARTNER: IBS MESSENGER
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