Octane fuel competition intensifies amongst OMCs in India

Indian Oil has launched a  premium grade Petrol (Octane 100) across ten cities beginning Tuesday. The fuel has been branded as XP100. Globally, 100 Octane petrol has a niche market for luxury vehicles that demand high performance, and is available only in six countries such as  Germany, USA amongst others. 

The fuel retailer has plans to  roll-out XP100 premium grade petrol in 15 identified cities across the country in two phases. In the first phase, it has been made available at select retail stations  in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Agra, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad. The second phase would see its availability getting  extended to Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi, and Kolkata.

"These cities have been selected based on their aspirational demographics and availability of high-end cars and bikes dealerships in these cities. High-end premium vehicles equipped with the latest technology are fully geared to reap the full-throttle benefits of 100 Octane petrol" company said in a statement. Taking a dig at its rivals, the oil marketing giant added, " For IndianOil, 99 is not enough". 

Interestingly, rival OMC,  Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) too has been aggressive in marketing its Octane fuel. Earlier last month, it launched 'poWer 99',  in  Tamil Nadu, to cater to the growing demand for premium fuel from the rising population of high-end cars and performance bikes in the State. The fuel is currently available in about 20 cities across the country. 'poWer 99' can withstand a greater rise in temperature during the compression stroke of an internal combustion engine without auto-ignition. This makes it an ideal fuel choice for high end cars from automakers like Porsche, Volvo, Lexus, Lamborghini, Audi, Mercedes, BMW and Ferrari. The fuel will also be extremely crucial for performance (race) cars, and also for performance motorcycles from manufacturers like Triumph, Harley Davidson and Ducati, among others" HPCL said in a statement.