E100 Fuel Allowed: Motor Vehicle Rules Amended for Flex-Fuel Vehicles

What happened

• The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways amended the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989.
• The notification was published in the Official Gazette on 26 October 2026 and took effect at once.
• E85 and E100 fuels are now covered in the rules on emission standards and testing.

Key facts

Item	Detail
Notified by	Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
Who can use E85/E100	Only vehicles certified as flex-fuel
Purpose	To promote domestic ethanol and cut crude oil imports
Existing vehicles	No mandate to switch fuel or modify
Other change	An E10 reference replaced with E20

What is a flex-fuel vehicle

• A flex-fuel vehicle can run on petrol, ethanol or any blend of the two.
• Sensors detect the blend in the tank, and the engine adjusts itself automatically.

Why it matters

• India imports most of the crude oil it uses.
• Ethanol is made in India from sugarcane, molasses and grains, so higher use supports farmers.
• Ethanol burns cleaner than petrol and lowers some vehicle emissions.

Static connect

• E20 means petrol blended with 20% ethanol. E100 is pure ethanol.
• The National Policy on Biofuels was notified in 2018 and amended in 2022.
• The Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme began in 2003.
• Second-generation (2G) ethanol is made from crop residue. PM JI-VAN Yojana (2019) supports 2G plants.

Exam relevance: TGPSC, APPSC (Economy, Energy); UPSC Prelims and GS-3.