Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],

For the longest time, I was like these dudes at the neighbourhood petrol bunk—not particularly bothered about whether I was filling my fuel tank with E10 or E12. Everyone said either worked just fine, and I just drove along. 

I’ve woken up to reality now, though it doesn’t look like most people at the many fuel stations that my colleague Siddhartha Gupta and I visited last week care too much about what mix of petrol and ethanol is flowing into their tanks. 

In the last few years, India has gradually moved to using E10, a 10% blend of ethanol with petrol. This has saved the exchequer a substantial amount by reducing the import bill (India imports over 75% of its oil and gas requirements) and now, the country is transitioning to a 20% blend, or E20. 

In just about two weeks from now, starting 1 April, cars that are not material-compliant with E20 will not be registered. The showrooms will not have such cars on display. It’s part of the planned phase-in for higher ethanol-content (and methanol for diesel) fuel.