Millions of Indian drivers may be filling their tanks with a fuel their engines were never built for — and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal wants the auto industry to answer for it. On Wednesday, 29 July 2026, Kejriwal convened a live press conference to reveal responses he received from automobile manufacturers after writing them directly about the compatibility of E20 fuel — petrol blended with 20% ethanol — with vehicles manufactured before 2023.

The question at the heart of the matter

The press event, broadcast live on X, centred on a pointed question Kejriwal had put to car companies: 'क्या 2023 से पहले बनी गाड़ियों में E20 इस्तेमाल हो सकता है?' ('Can E20 be used in vehicles manufactured before 2023?'). The timing is not incidental. India's ethanol blending programme has been accelerating rapidly, with E20 fuel now available at pumps across the country — yet the bulk of vehicles on Indian roads predate the 2023 E20-compatibility mandate issued by the Ministry of Road Transport.

How India's E20 mandate created a two-tier fleet problem

Under the National Policy on Biofuels (2018), India originally targeted 20% ethanol blending by 2030 — a deadline subsequently advanced to 2025. To align vehicle standards, the government required all new cars sold from 2023 onwards to be E20-compatible. The policy logic was sound: newer engines, newer materials, newer fuel-system components designed to handle higher ethanol content.

What the mandate did not resolve is the fate of the pre-2023 fleet — tens of millions of cars, two-wheelers, and three-wheelers whose fuel systems, rubber seals, and engine calibrations were designed for lower ethanol concentrations. Ethanol is hygroscopic, corrosive to certain metals and polymers, and carries less energy per litre than pure petrol. Running a non-compatible engine on E20 can, in principle, affect fuel efficiency, component longevity, and engine performance — concerns that consumer groups and mechanics have raised as blending targets climbed.

Kejriwal's letter and the auto industry's reply

By writing directly to automobile manufacturers and then presenting their responses at a public press conference, Kejriwal is deploying a tactic he has used before: converting a technical regulatory gap into a consumer-rights moment. The specific content of the auto companies' replies and the exact claims in his letter could not be independently verified ahead of the press briefing, but the format — a live, on-record reveal — signals he believes the answers are newsworthy.

The episode puts a spotlight on a question that regulators, automakers, and fuel retailers have largely left unanswered for the average vehicle owner: is it safe, and is it legal, to use E20 in an older car? A clear, enforceable answer from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas or the Bureau of Indian Standards has not been publicly issued for the existing fleet.

What pre-2023 vehicle owners need to know

India's vehicle parc — the total number of registered vehicles — runs into hundreds of millions, the overwhelming majority of which were sold before the E20-compatibility requirement took effect. For these owners, the absence of official guidance is not a bureaucratic footnote; it is a daily decision at the fuel pump. Kejriwal's press conference, whatever its political framing, has put that gap on the national agenda in a way that technical ministry circulars rarely manage.

The next move belongs to the regulators and the manufacturers — and, increasingly, the public is watching.