Explained | Electrified Flex Fuel Vehicles

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari launched the world’s first prototype of the BS-6 Stage II ‘Electrified Flex Fuel Vehicle’ developed by Toyota Kirloskar Motor.

What are flex fuel vehicles?

• A flexible fuel vehicle (FFV), as its name implies, has the flexibility of running on more than one type of fuel. 

• FFVs have an internal combustion engine and are capable of operating on gasoline and any blend of gasoline and ethanol/methanol.

• Like conventional gasoline vehicles, FFVs have a single fuel tank, fuel system, and engine.

• FFVs provide an opportunity of greater substitution of petrol by ethanol as it is capable of using any of the higher blends of ethanol mix from 20 per cent up to 100 per cent.

• Some special ethanol-compatible components are required to compensate for the different chemical properties and energy content in ethanol, such as modifications to the fuel pump and fuel injection system.

• While fuel economy (mileage) is generally lower with increased levels of ethanol (due to the lower energy content in ethanol as compared to gasoline and because the engines are optimized for gasoline), many FFVs have improved acceleration performance when operating on higher ethanol blends.

• In the West, FFVs have been produced since the 1990s, and more than one hundred models are available.

Electrified Flex Fuel Vehicle

• The challenge with flex fuel vehicles is lower fuel efficiency of ethanol due to its lower energy density. 

• Globally, to counter this challenge, Electrified Flex Fuel Vehicles are being introduced, as an advanced green technology that has both the flex fuel engine as well as an electric powertrain. 

• An Electrified Flex Fuel Vehicle has both a flex fuel engine and an electric powertrain. This gives it the ability to provide dual benefit of higher ethanol use and much higher fuel efficiency as is in case of a Strong Hybrid Electric Vehicle (SHEV).

• SHEV can run 40 per cent of the distance with the petrol engine shut off. The use of the electric powertrain in combination with the flex fuel engine overcomes this challenge with enhanced fuel efficiency. 

• Electrified Flex Fuel Vehicles provide the twin benefit of higher fuel substitution (with ethanol) as well as good fuel efficiency, due to high ratio of electric mode driving. 

• The Electrified Flex Fuel Vehicles uses minimal advanced chemistry batteries, thus guarding against negative impact of high imports of cells & cell raw material, considering possible geo-political supply risks.

• While Electrified Flex Fuel Vehicle technology was introduced in Brazil during 2019, the emission norms followed there are lower than BS-6. 

• The prototype of Electrified Flex Fuel Vehicle unveiled by Toyota is built-on Innova Hycross. The next steps for the prototype include further finer calibration, homologation, and certification. 

Challenges for adoption of flexible fuel vehicles

• From the customer perspective, flex fuel vehicles may not seem feasible in India, since the cost of ownership and running cost are going to be very high compared with regular vehicles.

• FFVs could be more expensive than regular vehicles due to the upgradation of materials, engine parts and fuel system. Further, running cost (due to lower fuel efficiency) will be higher by more than 30 per cent.

• Unless the fuel cost of FFVs at retail outlets is made cheaper, customers may not prefer these vehicles. Customer acceptance will be the big challenge in this case.

• Development effort of a flex fuel vehicle is much higher than regular vehicles considering that the control systems have to be calibrated with multiple blends to derive optimum efficiency and meet emission regulations. Investing in development of such vehicles is not viable if the fuel is not available across the country.