Normally, a bike like the Flex Fuel Pulsar NS160 wouldn’t catch our attention. After all, it’s a model that doesn’t make much sense in our market, which they’re just starting to enter, because of the displacement. Due to current legislation, either you usually opt for 125 with the A1/B or you move on to bikes with a bit more displacement and power once you get the A2.
But this Flex Fuel Pulsar NS160 has something very striking and that is its fuel. While most manufacturers are investigating electric, hybrid and hydrogen motorcycles, Bajaj continues to look for alternatives and has presented a motorcycle that runs on 100% ethanol at the India Bio-Energy & Tech (IBET) Expo 2024.
In many countries around the world, gasoline is already mixed with ethanol. In Spain, for example, we use two types, E5 and E10, which contain 5% and 10% ethanol respectively. There are even countries such as Brazil where the percentage of ethanol is as high as 27%.
Currently, there is no bike like the Bajaj Flex Fuel Pulsar NS160
In Brazil, Bajaj already sells models that can run on E27, but the Flex Fuel Pulsar NS160 is the first motorcycle they have developed that is capable of running on 100% ethanol. In order to use ethanol in this way, the motorcycle has had to undergo modifications, although they have not been particularly significant.
The bike’s ignition system has had to be modified, as well as the fuel tank and the fuel supply system to the engine because ethanol is more corrosive than gasoline. As for power, the figures have not been made public, but it is expected that they will not be very different from the gasoline version, which claims 17.2 hp and 14.6 Nm of torque.
The positive side of ethanol is that it is obtained directly from the fermentation of sugars from starchy and sugary vegetables. The most controversial part about it is that these vegetables are corn, wheat, sugar cane or beetroot and, therefore, there are those who point out that massive use of it would make food prices more expensive.
