Euro 6 helped India leapfrog to BS VI emission norm

The issue of pollution and focus towards sustainable solutions is a focus area globally, and for a developing country like India, the challenges and opportunities are manifold. As the deadline to adopt BS VI get close, and the auto industry in its final stage to ensure full-compliance, Integer Emissions Summit & AdBlue Forum India in its 9th year, held a two-day conference in Mumbai on September 25-26, 2019 to discuss and debate the way forward.

Integer Research was founded in 2003 as a specialist provider of research, data, analysis and consultancy services across the fertiliser, DEF/AdBlue, and wire and cable markets.

The two-day summit, which concluded today witnessed some high octane discussions on India’s leapfrog to adopt BS IV emission norms. The industry stakeholders deliberated the need for cleaner emission technology while also putting forward the challenges that comes with it.

In a discussion Fabricio Cardoso, manager, Consulting- Emission Control , AdBlue/DEF during a presentation on the overview of global emission said that India and China have both established plans to align its heavy duty standards with Europe and North America. Responding to a question by Sumantra Bibhuti Barooah, executive editor, Autocar Professional,  whether India is missing anything by skipping directly to BS VI, Fabricio said, “The technology is already there. Not jumping to BS VI would have just delayed the whole process.”

In 2016 the government of India decided to adopt BS VI norms by 2020, skipping BS V norms altogether. The BS VI fuel contains five times fewer sulphur traces and about 70 percent lesser nitrogen oxide for diesel engine and 25 percent in case of petrol engines. The upcoming emission norms mandate sales and registration of only BS VI-compliant vehicles starting April 1, 2020. At present, the fuel is made available in New Delhi and the NCR region. The delegates present at the summit commended the Indian OEMs for upgrading products to meet the new emission norms within a very short time as compared to Europe which took around a decade.

Later during the day I V Rao, visiting Senior Fellow, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and former executive advisor, Maruti Suzuki India gave a presentation on the future of mobility and how the industry will transform. Rao said that lack of related infrastructure is a major problem in the country as a result of which there is a great divide in the level of vehicle density between metros and small towns/villages.

Commenting on the much awaited vehicle scrappage policy, Rao said, “Unfortunately, India has not created infrastructure for inspection of vehicles on road and whether it is good enough for travelling.” Indian government has prepared a draft regarding vehicle scrappage policy and may release for implementation  after getting cabinet approval.

While the policy interventions from government is playing an important role in defining the future course of action for the industry, the emergence of new consumer trends which was discussed during the summit  may  certainly  help the industry stakeholders to understand the market  situation better.