New Delhi11 minutes ago
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Maruti Suzuki has today (June 4) introduced the first flex-fuel car in India, the Wagon-R Flex-Fuel. The new Wagon-R is capable of running completely on E85 fuel (up to 85% ethanol mixed petrol).
Currently, the vehicle will be available only to fleet operators and cab aggregators like Ola and Uber. For this reason, Maruti has not disclosed the prices of Wagon-R flex-fuel.
There is no change in the design of the car, but several mechanical updates have been made to make it compatible with E85 fuel, due to which it is expected that its price may be higher than the petrol and CNG versions.
Target to install 5000 ethanol pumps by 2027
On the occasion of the launch of the car, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that the government aims to install up to 5000 E85 fuel dispensing stations in the country by the end of 2027. “Initially we will have around 50 to 100 dispensing stations in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai-Pune-Nagpur corridor. This will be expanded to 500 stations by December this year,” Puri said. Along with this, the Union Minister also assured that the price of E85 fuel will be kept much lower than the current E20 petrol.
Production-spec model revealed for the first time
WagonR flex-fuel has been seen on several occasions before. It was first seen in the year 2022 and then in the Bharat Mobility Show in the year 2024. However, all the previous versions were mere prototypes (testing models), whereas the one introduced today is its production-spec (ready for production) model.
