Emails reveal Indian carmakers' fuel contamination worries before public retreat
NEW DELHI: Hours after India made public assurances last week that its ethanol-blended petrol was safe, the country’s main auto lobby withdrew a complaint about fuel contamination it had sent to the government a week earlier. The group said some figures needed more checks. But separate communications between industry executives, reviewed by Reuters, showed that in the preceding days, top…
Hours after India announced safety assurances for ethanol-blended petrol, the country's primary auto lobby withdrew a complaint about fuel contamination it had sent to the government a week earlier. Industry executives revealed their concerns about contamination of petrol blended with 20% ethanol, known as E20, in separate communications seen by Reuters.
Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, and Mahindra discussed their worries about chloride and moisture contamination, which they claim are harming vehicles' performance. Despite the withdrawal of the SIAM's July 28 letter on fuel contamination, the industry data and emails show multiple automakers had conducted extensive tests on E20, finding high chloride contamination in many samples across 18 states and high moisture content in several regions.
The executives' emails did not raise any concerns about data authentication. SIAM initially said the data was intended for internal circulation and validation, but later announced it would undertake a proper scientific study. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas also did not respond to requests for comment, stating that extensive random and scientific tests had found only four cases of contamination.
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