Zuno's blended fuel add-on covers only cars registered after April 2023
Fuel Guard covers specified engine and fuel-system parts against damage caused directly by manufacturer-approved blended fuel. Eligibility starts at cars registered on or after 1 April 2023, which excludes the older cars owners have been asking about.
Zuno General Insurance has launched Fuel Guard, a private car add-on covering specified engine and fuel-system components against accidental and unforeseen damage caused directly by manufacturer-approved blended fuel. Zuno describes it as an industry first. Bizmudra could not confirm that independently, and has asked the company on what definition it is claiming the first.
The cover is available for private cars registered on or after 1 April 2023, where the manufacturer has approved the specific blend in use, the vehicle has been maintained to the manufacturer's schedule, and the engine and fuel system are unmodified. It can be attached to private car package, standalone own-damage and bundled policies, including three-year long-term policies.
The eligibility date is the story. Under the government's ethanol blending roadmap, manufacturers were required to make new petrol models built from April 2023 compatible with E20, and petrol sold at Indian pumps is now E20. The owners who have spent the past year asking whether blended fuel will damage their cars are largely owners of pre-2023 vehicles, built when fuel systems were specified for lower blends. Those cars are not eligible. What Fuel Guard covers is a vehicle the manufacturer has already certified for the fuel it is running.
The gap the product sits in is real. A standard own-damage policy pays for sudden accidental loss and excludes wear and tear, which is the exclusion under which a gradual ethanol-related fuel-line failure would normally be declined. Insurers including ICICI Lombard have said publicly that running E20 does not invalidate motor cover, and the petroleum ministry has pointed to those clarifications. Nobody has so far written the risk as a named, priced cover.
Zuno did not disclose the premium, the sum insured or any claim limit, which components are on the specified list, or whether the add-on has been filed with IRDAI under the use-and-file route. The covering email and the attached document also carry two different subtitles, which suggests the framing changed late.
