Government Paying Influencers To Post 'Only Good Things' About E20 Petrol: Instagrammer

The Indian government’s push for a complete rollout of E20 fuel has created much frenzy online. People are actively discussing the good, bad and ugly of it. We at Cartoq have done our best to discuss every details of E20 fuel and the direction of the governmental push. In the last few days, however, a lot of creators and influencers have been doing videos and other engaging content in favour of E20 implementation. Now, the Instagram account ‘The Race Monkey’ has exposed an agency trying to run paid campaigns for promoting E20 petrol.

Race Monkey has shared a screenshot of the message that they received from an agency, pitching the content idea. The caption of the post reads ‘Misinformation Campaign on the roll..!!!’. The account further says that it declined the offer from the agency and further issues a warning to its followers- ‘Beware of paid influencer trying to push you into the Ethanol / E20 trap!’

The message shown has a proposal that is rather long. It says that this is a collaboration opportunity for Racemonkey’s Instagram/YouTube channel. The expected deliverables are one reel, one YouTube short and a Tweet (X post) if possible.

The content should address the concerns about E20 petrol positively and explain how it will benefit farmers and reduce pollution. It should also talk about the other benefits of using blended fuel. Finally, it asks the creator to share the cost for the same.

In another picture, Race Monkey clarifies that the common man is bearing the cost of damage to the vehicle and pocket. It further asks the community to voice against any influencer who is seen promoting Ethanol or E20 petrol. People have been praising RaceMonkey for the stand it took in the issue and for shedding clarity on things.

The Larger Picture

Many users have already started reporting visible declines in fuel efficiencies returned by their vehicles post the advent of 20% ethanol-blended petrol. It isn’t, however, rare to see influencers claiming otherwise and spreading false positivity around E20 fuel.

Image: Screenshot of post by @AbhishekSay on Twitter

After Racemonkey’s post came to light, we have more clarity on what’s going on behind the scenes. A thread on X (previously Twitter) has aggregated a series of E20 promotional videos created by known influencers from various micro-niches.

We did look at the videos shared by these influencers. Most of them are very convincing. This shows how influential and powerful social media and short form video content have become, and how they can be used for implementing propaganda.

Influencer Abhishek Malhan aka Fukra Insaan shared a video in which he tries to explain why he prefers E20 petrol. He says that it lowers Carbon emissions, improves efficiency, and in turn, benefits farmers.

He also takes the question 'doesn't using E20 harm the engine oil?' He negates concerns completely and says that all engines after 2023 are E20 compliant. This creator, however, doesn't talk about the pre-2023 engines or non-compliant ones.

Truth: E20 petrol can harm non-compliant engines. It can corrode metal parts and even damage rubber components like fuel hoses. The rubber parts will need more frequent changes- say, every 20,000-30,000 km.

Mahesh Keshwala aka Thugesh, another influencer created a video that stresses the environmental impact of using E20 fuel. The main character in this video is a cab driver. He mentions that currently the petrol sold here already contains 18% Ethanol, and the government plans to take it to 20% to save the environment by reducing pollution.

Another video shared by the artist RJ Naved also has a similar narrative. In addition to the above mentioned points, it also mentions about India's efforts to curb oil imports and save on those expenses. Using blended fuel can bring down India's reliance on other countries for oil. But it has also brought about a spike in corn imports! We'll talk about it further down in this article.

A video shared by RJ Praveen emphasises the positive impact that blended fuel use has on agricultural economy, national economy, and air quality.

Several finfluencers (financial influencers) have also created content around the topic. Neha Nagar is one of them. In her, she explains what E20 petrol is, and how the blending program will contribute to the national economy.

Sanjay Kathuria, another finfluencer, shared a video which has the form of a 'myth buster'. Kathuria talks about and clarifies a few concerns around E20. He stats by talking about possible engine damage. He says that BS6 and newer engines are E20 compliant and will not take any damage. He conveniently ignores older engines!

Next, he talks about the drop in mileage. He says that there will be a slight drop (1-2%) in fuel efficiency, which can be overcome easily considering the lower prices of blended fuel. In theory, this may sound interesting. But the sad truth is that in many cities E20 petrol has the same price (if not more) than its predecessor.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, even said that at present, blended petrol is more expensive to produce than conventional petrol! Thus, the cost-benefit advantage ism't real, yet.

Next, he talks about the 'water in the engine' concern. He is likely referring to the 'moisture'. He says that modern engines are sealed and cannot let water in! By intention or not, this explanation is misleading! The question of moisture causing damage to the engine comes, when a vehicle running on E20 petrol is kept unused for a few days.

The engine is NOT air-tight. It needs to breathe to function. The Ethanol in the fuel can attract moisture from the air inside the engine, and cause it to settle down on the metallic surfaces. This is what is going to cause corrosion.

In an interesting turn of events, the aggressive push for E20 fuel has turned India into a major corn importer! According to a report in Business Standard, the push for corn-based Ethanol has made India- which used to be Asia’s top corn exporter into a net importer! India reportedly hiked the procurement price of ethanol made from corn to encourage the same, and shift away from sugarcane-based ethanol.

The government seems to be trying to ensure ample supply of cheap sugar here. This means that corn imports are likely to go further up in the coming years and could support global prices which are currently running low.

The increased push for corn-based Ethanol has been harsh on the poultry industry. The poultry and starch industries are the biggest takers of our corn. In poultry, the feed accounts for three-fourth of the total production costs. Corn is used as feed in most cases.

The new move has pushed the production costs high enough to make the business unviable for many. As far as we can see, chicken is going to get expensive in the near future! To achieve the E20 target, an estimated 10 billion litres of ethanol is required.

Another major problem is that of water consumption. Ethanol manufacturing is a water intensive process. A lot of water is needed particularly for fermentation and distillation. The cooling systems at the plans will further require a generous amount of water.

Producing 10 billion litres of ethanol can thus be extremely demanding on the country's fresh water resources. Even though techniques like recycling and effective water management strategies can reduce the consumption, a lot of water will still be required. Huge consumption of it can harm India's fresh water resources.

What we talked about yet, are just some of the consequences that the move might bring about in sectors outside of automotive. The impact of the E20 push will not be limited to the auto sector alone.