High chloride and moisture in India's E20 petrol cause failures
E20 petrol in India is showing way too much chloride and moisture, and it is causing serious headaches for car owners.
Automakers are seeing a rise in failures of fuel-system and exhaust-related components, with corrosion and wear linked to excessive chloride contamination.
Tests found chloride levels up to 500 mg/kg (the recommended limit is under 10 ppm), which is a key contributing factor to the damage.
SIAM wants audits, lower chloride limits
It is not just chloride: moisture in the fuel has excessive contamination too, and aging storage tanks, pipelines, fuel tankers and other fuel-handling infrastructure are likely sources of contamination.
The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) wants stricter rules: lower chloride limits and regular audits of older fuel stations and stricter quality checks across the retail fuel network.
Even Mercedes-Benz India flagged these issues with its cars.
The government is now telling oil companies to step up quality checks while the root causes of contamination are investigated.