Toyota: No Warranty If You Use E20 Petrol On E10 Hyryder, Innova Hycross Hybrids

India is sprinting towards its ambitious E20 target. Fuel dispensers in many cities have silently made a transition to supplying E20 blended petrol and the same has stirred a lot of discussions online, mostly against the move. The general notion makes us believe that E20 petrol will not harm vehicle engines, unless they are decades old. In an interesting turn of events, Toyota has now confirmed that the E20 blended fuel could potentially damage some of their vehicles, and using the same would deprive the affected parts of warranty! In the larger picture, this will affect E10 versions of the Hyryder and Hycross as well...

Image: Screenshot of the email response received by the Urban Cruiser owner

Before you ask, this wasn't a public announcement, but an email response to the owner of an Urban Cruiser (the rebadged Brezza), shared privately. It is to be noted here that this SUV is powered by the Maruti Suzuki K15 engine.

The owner here, seems to have contacted Toyota's support with a few questions related to the use of blended fuel. These, along with the carmaker's responses are given below:

• Please confirm if it is safe or not, to use E20 Blended Ethanol fuel on the Toyota Urban Cruiser, despite what is mentioned in the Manual. Answer: It is not advisable to use E20 blended Ethanol, please use E10 fuel only as mentioned in owner's manual.
• Please confirm if using E20 Blended Ethanol fuel will void the Toyota Warranty. Answer: Usage of any fuel (other than recommended as per Owner's Manual) will void Toyota Warranty for the impacted parts.

It goes on to say that to prevent the adverse impacts on the car's long-term life, the best way is to avoid using E20 petrol, and stick to the fuel mentioned in its owner's manual. In the case of many vehicles, the manual recommends up to 10% blending (10% Ethanol + 90% petrol or E10).

Shocked by the response, the owner soon took it to Team BHP and other social media platforms. People soon took it up and started resharing. The engagement on social media reveals that the public sentiment is against the transition to blended fuel.

Toyota's Previous Claims Shattered!

This email response has completely negated Toyota's previous remarks about using E20 fuel in their engines. In January 2023, while talking to V3 Cars about the possible impact of E20 fuel on the vehicles' long term reliability, Toyota's country head and SVP, Vikram Gulati said:

"We test our vehicles in the roughest conditions and engineer them to operate reliably beyond our customer’s expectations. Because of that initial engineering effort we have put in, you can run any of our cars from 2013 or later on E20 fuel without any problems for the rest of the vehicle life.”

The statement makes us assume that the 'life' refers to a span of 15 years. The latest response from the customer service team contradicts this claim. If it is risky to run E10 versions on E20 fuel, a lot of pre-2023 models will get impacted.

Not The First Such Case!

Image: Screenshot of TBHP discussion

Previous discussions online had revealed several Toyota dealers silently admitting that E10 engines aren't likely to run safely on E20 fuel for long. These again, were interpersonal, mostly exchanges between existing customers or potential buyers and the respective dealers.

The E10 Versions Other Toyotas Are Affected Too!

Another model affected by this issue is the Glanza. It was first launched in India in 2019, as an E10-compliant model. Above is a screenshot of the 2022 Baleno's user manual. For the uninformed, the Glanza is a badge-engineered product- meaning it is the Baleno with a Toyota badge and zero mechanical changes. It clearly says that fuel with up to 10% blending (E10) are only recommended. Thus, the same applies to the Glanzas sold during the period. Post 2023, however, the hatchback has made a transition to E20-compliance.

Similarly, for the Hyryder, the manual confirms that it is recommended to use E10 fuel. It further says that 'the vehicle may also be plied with a blend of no more than 20% ethanol'.

The Innova Hycross, a crowd favourite, however, has been E20 compliant since March 2023. The MPV was launched in India in December 2022 as n E10 compliant offering. The E20 version debuted months after its market debut. The customers who own the E10 version haven't reported many issues yet, but the long term reliability remains to be seen.

If you own one of the affected vehicles, the best way would be to always abide by the fuel specifications mentioned in the user manual, so that you stay covered by the warranty.

E20 Petrol: What Issues Can It Cause?

Well, we have already seen how the use of E20 blended petrol could potentially damage the engine and make the affected parts devoid of warranty. In addition to this, the vehicle's fuel efficiency could take a hit. Expect a fall of 7-8 percent in cars and SUVs, as (20%) Ethanol-blended petrol has 33% less energy density than regular petrol. Older vehicles will be the most affected.

If the vehicle isn't E20 compatible, using blended fuel may also lead to corrosion, engine knocking, cold start trouble, and sluggish acceleration. We have detailed all these in this article.