New Delhi: Every day, millions of Indians turn a key, press a starter and expect their vehicles to do one simple thing: move.For many owners of older vehicles that expectation has quietly become uncertain. Motorcycles refuse to start on cold mornings, cars are losing power without warning while the fuel economy shrinks.Sunil Kumar stands outside D.P. Motors, a Royal Enfield authorised service centre in Zamrudpur Village, New Delhi, where he says he has seen a rise in fuel-related vehicle complaints following the rollout of E20 petrol. Photo: Saloni Sharma.Mechanics report clogged injectors, corroded fuel lines and cracked rubber components with a frequency they say had never seen before. These failures rarely make headlines. They arrive one vehicle at a time and become patterns in workshops scattered across the country.At D.P. Motors, a Royal Enfield authorised service centre tucked inside Delhi’s Zamrudpur village, Sunil Kumar, a mechanic, says the pattern became impossible to ignore soon after E20 petrol was rolled out nationwide in April 2025. Customers began arriving with rough idling, hard starts, engine misfires in motorcycles barely three or four years old.Mechanic Sunil Kumar displays fuel drained from a customer’s motorcycle at his workshop in Zamrudpur Village, New Delhi. Photo: Saloni Sharma.One afternoon, he drained the fuel tank of a customer’s motorcycle into a plastic bottle. The fuel separated almost immediately. A pale layer of petrol floated above water and a dark black residue had settled at the bottom. Holding up the bottle to the light, Kumar pointed to the sludge. “This is what’s going into the engine,” he said. “When the vehicle breaks down, customers blame the mechanic. But the problem isn’t our work. It’s the fuel.”That bottle tells a story that India’s ethanol transition often does not. On paper, the country’s ethanol blending programme has been one of its most ambitious reforms. By increasing the proportion of domestically produced ethanol in petrol, the government hopes to reduce the crude oil imports, lower carbon emissions and support the sugarcane farmers. E20 (petrol blended with 20% ethanol) was projected as a crucial milestone in that journey. Barely a year after completing its nationwide rollout, the government has shifted its attention to the next destination. In June 2026, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri launched E85 fuel at an Indian Oil retail outlet in New Delhi. The rollout commences across 48 Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) retail outlets (ROs) in the country, enabling flex-fuel vehicle users to access this cleaner fuel. The initiative is slated for nationwide expansion.Also read: Emperor’s Experiment and Guinea Pig Public: The E20 Petrol PolicyThe same would be scaled up to 500 ROs by December 2026 and about 5000 ROs by December 2027. But as India prepares for the next phase of its ethanol transition, an uncomfortable question remains: What happens to the millions of vehicles still struggling with E20? Have they simply been left to catch up on their own?The government acknowledges that the transition is not without costs. In a detailed Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document issued by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), it notes that ethanol-blended petrol has lower energy content than conventional petrol, resulting in some reduction in fuel economy, and recognises that older vehicles may experience compatibility issues, including deterioration of rubber and plastic components not designed for higher ethanol blends. However, it argues that these trade-offs are outweighed by the programme’s broader benefits, including reduced dependence on imported crude oil, improved energy security, lower greenhouse gas emissions and additional income for farmers. The government also points to significant savings in foreign exchange and relatively stable domestic fuel prices despite global crude oil volatility, maintaining that routine servicing and the gradual transition to E20-compatible vehicles will minimise the impact on consumers.Sikander Ali with his motorcycle in New Delhi. He says its mileage has declined since the rollout of E20 petrol. Photo: Saloni Sharma.But for Sikander Ali, a mechanic and a part-time rider on ride-hailing platform Rapido, the consequences of that transition are measured not in policy targets or ethanol percentages, but in the kilometres his motorcycle can no longer travel. Every evening, after spending hours repairing other people’s vehicles, he straps on his helmet and logs into the Rapido app. Every ride means another chance to earn enough to support his family. His Hero Splendor is more than a motorcycle, it is his livelihood and often the difference between making enough for the day or returning home short.“Earlier, a litre of fuel carried him nearly 14 kilometres. Today, it barely manages seven or eight,” he said.Also read: Govt Note Admits E20 Can Reduce Fuel Economy by 3-5% in Some VehiclesEvery extra litre he buys eats into what he earns. What troubles him even more is that the complaints are no longer his alone. Customers arrive at the workshop describing the same problems: vehicles that consume more fuel than they used to, engines that feel sluggish and repair bills that seem to appear continuously. As a mechanic, he hears their frustrations every day; as a rider, he lives them.In August 2025, just months after E20 became available across the country, LocalCircles surveyed more than 37,000 vehicle owners across 331 districts. Nearly two out of every three owners of pre-2022 vehicles reported a decline in fuel efficiency, while 28% said they had noticed unusual wear and tear in engines, fuel tanks, carburettors and fuel lines. By October, a follow up survey covering over 36,000 respondents across 323 districts showed the concerns had intensified. Nearly eight in ten owners of older vehicles reported lower mileage and the share reporting abnormal wear had risen to 52%. Even after E20 had been in widespread use for over a year, a May 2026 survey of more than 50,000 respondents found that half of owners of old vehicles continued to experience reduced fuel efficiency, with one in four reporting mileage losses exceeding 20%.The government’s estimates, however, differ sharply from consumer surveys. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has consistently estimated a mileage reduction of between 3-5%, arguing that routine servicing is sufficient to manage the transition.Naveen Monga and Yuvraj Kundwar at an auto repair shop in New Delhi. Photo: Saloni Sharma.A few kilometres from Kumar’s workshop, mechanics Naveen Monga and Yuvraj Kundwar were repairing a Honda Activa that had stopped working without warning. After dismantling the scooter, they traced the problem to a damaged wire harness. It was not the first time they have encountered such a fault. They say similar repairs have become increasingly common in older two-wheelers since the rollout of E20. Unlike conventional petrol, ethanol readily absorbs moisture from the atmosphere. Over time, particularly in vehicles that remain parked for long periods, water can separate inside the fuel tank, accelerating corrosion and affecting components that were originally designed for lower ethanol blends. Automobile manufacturers have acknowledged some of these limitations. Jeep cautions against using ethanol blends above 10%, warning of engine malfunction and material degradation, while TVS Motor has stated that older vehicles may require modifications before safely operating on E20. Industry estimates cited by Business Standard suggest that nearly 80% of vehicles currently on Indian roads were originally engineered for E5 or E10 petrol. Yet when E20 became the default fuel at petrol pumps nationwide, millions of owners found themselves adapting to a new fuel without a corresponding transition plan for the vehicles they already owned. That gap has quietly created an economy of its own.At an auto-parts shop in Lajpat Nagar, bottles of Liqui Moly’s E20 additive now line the shelves alongside engine cleaners and lubricants. Costing around Rs 800 a bottle per fuel tank and marketed as a way to compensate for performance losses associated with ethanol-blended fuel, the additive promises to restore what many drivers believe they have lost. It is an unusual sight: a product designed not to improve an engine, but to help it cope with a fuel that has already become unavoidable.Liqui Moly E20 fuel additive displayed at an auto parts shop in New Delhi. Photo: Saloni Sharma.Perhaps that is the most revealing consequence of the transition. Long before many consumers understood what E20 meant for their vehicles, a market had already emerged to help them live with it.The government’s case for ethanol blending rests on a compelling national interest: reducing dependence on imported crude oil while strengthening India’s energy security. Yet the sustainability debate does not end at the fuel pump. Much of India’s ethanol continues to be derived from sugarcane, rice and maize which are among the country’s most water intensive crops. NITI Aayog’s Roadmap for Ethanol Blending in India 2020-2025 notes that scaling up ethanol production will require greater feedstock diversification and careful management of water resources to ensure long term sustainability. That caution appears increasingly relevant as India’s ethanol ambitions expand.Producing a kilogram of rice, for instance, requires roughly 4,000 litres of irrigation water, while sugarcane cultivation has long been associated with ground water depletion in several states. The transition, therefore, is not simply a choice between fossil fuels and biofuels, but a balancing act between two national priorities- energy security and water security.While India has pursued ethanol blending for over two decades, its most ambitious phase has unfolded in rapid succession. Brazil spent nearly three decades building an ecosystem in which fuel technology, vehicles, infrastructure and consumers evolved together. India, too, has steadily expanded its ethanol programme as clarified by government in the recent FAQ published by PIB, but the rapid move from E20 to E85 has raised questions about whether the supporting ecosystem has kept pace. Government’s position is that they are necessary trade offs in pursuit of energy security but the experiences of mechanics, vehicle owners and consumers documented in this story suggest those trade-offs are proving far more uneven than anticipated.Farmers, vehicle owners and gig workers are being asked to shoulder the costs of a transition they had little say in and little time to prepare for. For now, that story is still being written in repair workshops, at fuel stations and in the lives of those navigating India’s ethanol transition.Saloni Sharma is an independent journalist and multimedia storyteller reporting on public policy, environment and social justice.