Sourav Joshi, Mercedes-Benz, and E20: The Viral Video, the Retraction, and the Deletion

In early July 2026, Sourav Joshi — India’s most-subscribed lifestyle vlogger with over 39.5 million YouTube subscribers — posted a vlog claiming his Mercedes-Benz SUV’s mileage had crashed from 17 km/l to 5 km/l after filling E20 petrol. The video went massively viral, reigniting the national debate on ethanol-blended fuel. Within a week, Mercedes-Benz issued an advisory, a service centre found an engine fault, Joshi retracted his claim, and then deleted the E20 remarks from the original video — triggering a second controversy about whether he was pressured into silence.

Who is Sourav Joshi?

Sourav Joshi is a 27-year-old content creator from Haldwani, Uttarakhand. His daily vlogs, centred on family life, art, and everyday activities, have made him one of the most-watched Indian creators on YouTube. His main channel, Sourav Joshi Vlogs, crossed 39.5 million subscribers by mid-2026. A second channel carries additional millions. His audience is predominantly Hindi-speaking, young, and spread across tier-2 and tier-3 cities — exactly the demographic most affected by E20’s impact on vehicle costs.

Joshi is not an automotive expert. He is not a policy commentator. He is a lifestyle vlogger who talked about his own car in a vlog — and that distinction matters for understanding what happened next.

The video: what Joshi claimed

In a vlog published in early July 2026, Joshi described what he said was a dramatic drop in fuel efficiency in his Mercedes-Benz SUV. He claimed that mileage had fallen from approximately 17 km/l to around 5 km/l — a 70% reduction. He attributed the drop to E20 petrol.

The video featured no laboratory testing, no fuel-sample analysis, and no independent verification. It was a first-person account of a vehicle owner’s experience, presented in the same casual style as the rest of Joshi’s content.

Given Joshi’s enormous subscriber base, the video reached millions within hours. It was clipped, re-shared, and debated across X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and WhatsApp. For many viewers, it confirmed their own suspicions about E20. For the auto industry and the government, it was a problem.

Mercedes-Benz responds

On or around July 12, 2026, Mercedes-Benz India issued an advisory stating that all its BS VI vehicles are fully E20-compatible. The company made clear that its engines had been tested and certified for E20 blended petrol, and that E20 should not cause the kind of mileage collapse Joshi described.

Separately, Joshi’s vehicle was taken to an authorised Mercedes-Benz service centre. The service centre’s inspection reportedly found an engine fault — not E20 — was responsible for the mileage anomaly. The specifics of the fault were not publicly disclosed, but reports indicated it was a mechanical or sensor issue unrelated to fuel composition.

This is an important data point. A 70% mileage drop is not consistent with what E20 does to a properly functioning engine. E20 contains approximately 6.5% less energy per litre than pure petrol (E0). Real-world mileage losses, as documented by ARAI and owner surveys, range from 3% to 20% depending on vehicle type, driving conditions, and engine calibration. A 70% collapse points to a mechanical problem, not a fuel-composition issue.

The retraction

Following the Mercedes-Benz advisory and the service centre findings, Joshi posted on X (formerly Twitter) retracting his E20 claim and apologising. He acknowledged that the mileage problem was due to an engine fault, not E20.

The retraction was reported by The Federal, Free Press Journal, Oneindia, Pune Pulse, and Newsgram, among others.

For the government and the auto industry, the retraction closed the factual loop: the mileage drop was not caused by E20. For E20 critics, however, the retraction raised a different set of questions.

The deletion controversy

Within days of the retraction, viewers noticed that Joshi had edited the original vlog, removing or cutting the segments where he blamed E20 for the mileage drop. The deletion was not announced. The video remained live with other content intact, but the E20 remarks were gone.

This triggered what many media outlets called a “second controversy.” The questions were immediate:

• Did Joshi delete the remarks on his own, having accepted the service centre findings?
• Was he pressured by Mercedes-Benz, which had a clear commercial interest in not having its vehicles associated with a viral E20 complaint?
• Was he pressured by government-aligned interests, given the political sensitivity of E20 criticism at a time when FIRs were being filed against other influencers?

Joshi did not publicly explain why he deleted the remarks rather than adding a correction or follow-up note. The Free Press Journal ran a dedicated article asking “Did YouTuber Sourav Joshi delete E20 petrol criticism remarks from latest vlog?” and detailed what was known about the timeline.

The broader pattern

The Joshi episode did not happen in isolation. In the same period:

• Manish Kashyap, a YouTuber with 9.3 million subscribers, made similar E20 damage claims about his Toyota Innova Hycross and had an FIR filed against him.
• Four influencers — Kashyap, Desi Boys NCR, Harshit Rathi, and Anklesh Invate — faced an FIR from Nagpur Cyber Police over allegedly misleading E20 content.
• A paid influencer campaign was exposed, in which an agency offered up to ₹15 lakh to creators to post pro-E20 content.

Together, these events created an environment where any influencer discussing E20 — whether positively or negatively — faced scrutiny. Critics of the deletion argued that Joshi saw what happened to others and chose to remove his remarks pre-emptively. Supporters of the retraction said he simply corrected an inaccurate claim. Both interpretations are plausible; neither has been confirmed.

What the episode reveals about E20 discourse

The Sourav Joshi controversy is useful because it illustrates several dynamics in the E20 debate:

1. Anecdotal claims spread faster than technical evidence

Joshi’s 17 km/l-to-5 km/l claim was not supported by any controlled test. But because it came from a trusted, relatable creator with 39.5 million subscribers, it was treated by millions of viewers as more credible than ARAI’s lab data. This is not because viewers are uninformed — it is because they trust their own experience and the experience of people they follow more than institutional communications.

2. Retractions do not travel as far as claims

The original video was watched by millions. The retraction on X reached a fraction of that audience. The deletion ensured that new viewers of the vlog would never see either the claim or the correction. This is a structural problem with social media: corrections almost never reach everyone who saw the original.

3. The deletion raised questions that the retraction alone would not have

If Joshi had left the original video up and added a pinned comment or follow-up video explaining the engine fault, the story would likely have ended there. The deletion — silent, unexplained — created the perception that something was being hidden, which gave the story a second life.

4. Even debunked claims leave a residue

Many viewers who saw the original video never saw the retraction. For them, “Sourav Joshi’s Mercedes got 5 km/l on E20” remains a data point. This is true even though the claim was factually wrong. The psychological literature calls this the “continued influence effect” — corrected misinformation continues to shape beliefs even after the correction is accepted.

5. Real E20 mileage losses provide fertile ground for exaggerated claims

Joshi’s 70% mileage drop was not caused by E20. But millions of owners are experiencing genuine mileage losses of 10–20% on E20. When the government dismisses all complaints as “unreliable” or “anecdotal,” it creates a credibility vacuum that exaggerated claims rush to fill. If ARAI or the Petroleum Ministry had published transparent, vehicle-specific mileage data, claims like Joshi’s would have been easier for the public to evaluate on their own.

The factual position

Why this matters for the E20 debate

The Sourav Joshi episode is neither a vindication of E20 nor proof that critics are wrong. The specific claim was debunked — but the underlying frustration that made the video go viral is real. Millions of vehicle owners are seeing higher fuel bills and lower mileage. They do not have access to independent testing facilities. They cannot verify what blend is actually in their tank. When a creator they trust says “this happened to me,” they believe it, because it matches their own experience — even when the specific claim turns out to be incorrect.

The lesson is not that people should stop sharing their experiences. The lesson is that institutions — ARAI, the Petroleum Ministry, the oil marketing companies — need to provide transparent, accessible, vehicle-specific data so that citizens can distinguish between genuine E20-related issues and unrelated mechanical faults. In the absence of that data, every viral video fills the void, whether accurate or not.

Sources

• The Federal — Sourav Joshi backtracks on E20 mileage claim
• Free Press Journal — Did Sourav Joshi delete E20 criticism from his vlog?