Hero MotoCorp’s Entire Bike & Scooter Portfolio Can Be Upgraded To E85 Fuel

Hero MotoCorp made a bold statement by launching the Flex-fuel versions of the Hero Splendor Plus and HF Deluxe recently. Both the motorcycles can run in different fuel blends ranging from E20 up to E85, making them future proof. The fact that Hero went ahead and launched this new technology on their most popular motorcycles shows the trust the brand has on this new technology which promises to revolutiuonise the adoption of flex-fuel technology among Indian bikers.

At the launch event, Ashtusoh Varma, CBO, India Business Unit at Hero MotoCorp also mentioned that this new technology of bikes running between E20 to E85 fuel can be made available on the entire Hero portfolio in the next two years. According to Ashutosh, the new kit is a direct fit on the entire portfolio of Hero bikes and scooters as they are BS6 OBD2. The only challenge according to the brand is to see how quickly E85 fuel is made available across the country as it will require fuel pumps to add a dedicated filling nozzle and tanks for the higher blend of ethanol. The company is also hopeful that flex fuel two-wheelers receive some kind of subsidy as offered to electric vehicles so as to prompt faster adoption of flex-fuel offerings among the masses as.

One big negative of E85 fuel is that fuel efficiency of a vehicle could drop between 20-30 per cent, which is a lot. However, Hero officials are hopeful that E85 fuel will be much cheaper than the current E20 fuel thereby ensuring that the running cost of both the E20 and E85 fuels are similar, which is what matters for the end user.

Making BS4 Hero Vehicles E20 Plus Compliant
Hero engineers are also working on a new kit that can even make BS4 vehicles that aren’t E10 plus compliant to run on higher ethanol blends. Unlike the current kit, which can run on any blend between E20 and E85, the new kit can only work on a fixed ethanol blend. For example if the government makes E30 as the standard fuel blend in the future and consumers can opt for E85 as an option, this kit will be tuned for running E30 fuel.

The current system is ECU-based so it can run on varying ethanol blends by altering the air-fuel ratios via sensors. However, the BS4 Hero engines employed a carburettor, the above isn’t possible and it can only run on fixed ethanol blend. The kit is still under development and Hero officials haven’t confirmed when it will go on sale or how much it will cost as it’s waiting and watching for what ethanol blend will be standardised in the future.