The ministry of petroleum and natural gas (MoPNG) on July 23 asked the Supreme Court to ban the sale and manufacturing of Bharat Stage-VI non-compliant vehicles in India, starting April 1, 2020. The ban, if implemented, is also expected to boost the Centre’s efforts to ensure faster adoption of electric vehicles in the country.
In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, the ministry said that the ban should be implemented as the continued sale of BS-VI non-compliant vehicles “will lessen the environmental benefits to be accrued from using cleaner BS-VI fuel.” The Centre has invested $4Bn (INR 28,000 Cr) to promote the use of cleaner BS-VI fuel.
The Bharat Stage VI norms are essentially emission control standards meant to keep a check on air pollution. Based on the European regulations (Euro norms), these standards set specifications/limits for the release of air pollutants from equipment using internal combustion engines, including vehicles. While BS IV-compliant fuel currently in use has 50 parts per million (ppm) sulphur, BS VI stipulates a low 10 ppm. India plans to jump from the BS IV to BS VI by 2020.
The bench hearing the case ordered that the ministry’s affidavit be supplied to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) so the latter can respond to it. The bench said, “When this issue (shifting from BS-IV to BS-VI) had cropped up, there was strong opposition from you.”
The bench was told that Mercedes-Benz was already manufacturing BS-VI compliant vehicles in India. Benz recently announced that up to 40% of its entire product lineup would be fully electric or powered by some form of hybrid powertrain by 2025. Indian automakers such as Tata and Maruti & Mahindra are also said to be exporting BS-VI vehicles.
Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a report which said that India’s road transportation alone contributed to 87% of the total 188 MT of CO2 emitted in the country till 2010. It noted that electric vehicles are at least 3 to 3.5 times more energy efficient than traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.
