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INDIA TODAY Nothing at all. In fact, there are no set guidelines to regulate fuel efficiency of cars in India. Nobody knows how fuel-efficient our cars are. Consumers are keen to know how much fuel they can save from fuel efficiency standards, especially as the cost of transportation rises day-by-day. But, there is no official policy to make car manufacturers reveal the fuel economy levels of the vehicles, or undergo any certification to back their claims. It is a scene of total confusion, even at the ministerial level! Standard fight 
In 2004, the Union Ministry of Road Transport, Shipping and Highways (MoRSTH) issued a legal mandate to the manufacturers to get their vehicles (manufactured on and after April 1, 2005) tested for fuel consumption. But, neither the manufacturers nor the Pune-based vehicle certification centre Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) share this information. The data is not accessible even under the Right To Information Act! Two years back, a push for efficiency regulations came from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). In the beginning, ministries were confused as to who should set the standards. Then all of them entered the fray, triggering a major fight. The MoSRTH, which regulates toxic emissions from vehicles, is not authorised (legally) to regulate energy consumption in vehicles. The Central Motor Vehicles Act and Rules, 1989, allows it to only make rules for “emissions of smoke, visible vapour, spark, ashes, grit or oil” and “standards for emission of air pollutants.” Energy can be regulated only under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001, administered by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), an autonomous body under the Union Ministry of Power. BEE sets norms for all equipment and appliances “which consumes, generates, transmits or supplies energy”. Fearing the loss of control over this vehicle-related legislation, MoSRTH tried to take the Climate Change route. Since vehicles are the primary source of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, standards should be set to regulate these directly, it argued. So a committee was set up to formulate emissions standards in cars. The step baffled the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), which supervises climate action in India, and thus, should deal with CO2 emission issue. Next came the Union Ministry of Heavy Industries, which is in administrative charge of the automobile industry. It challenged the legality of the BEE process under the EC Act. Now the bitter wrangle has forced the PMO to intervene. It has decided to constitute an inter-ministerial group to set standards for fuel-efficiency in the country. But why so much of confusion? Because the automobile industry is doing all it can to resist fuel economy standards. Companies cover up The Indian automobile industry has been on warpath. Companies argue that this data is ‘trade secret’, and cannot be made public. Fuel efficiency is a car’s unique sales proposition. Those not meeting customer expectation will lose market. They are also scared of customer wrath – what if the on-road performance of vehicles does not match industry claims? It would give rise to a storm of litigations, that will sweep them away. So, instead of fuel economy, the industry wants standards for carbon dioxide emissions. This would shift the focus from the energy plank to the climate action platform. But, why are the companies so anxious? Even the countries, which have stringent fuel economy standards, mention a clause of ‘under ideal circumstances’. This means, the standards do not provide absolute values of fuel economy but set benchmark to indicate the fuel economy performance, which can help the consumers to make a choice and also helps industry to improve technology effectively. So, the fuel efficiency level can be a little above or below the benchmark. In spite of this, the automobile industry is apprehensive about the standards. Does this mean that the fuel economy levels of our vehicles are so low that manufacturers are scared of revealing these to the consumers? Or is it that the car makers are unwilling to do the little technological tweaking required to make cars more fuel efficient? The latest stance taken by the industry is that it will opt for the ‘voluntary scheme’. As per this, it will self-label the vehicles and provide data from January 2009. But, this is neither mandatory for the manufacturers, nor will it have any legal backing. So, no one knows how reliable or dubious the information would be. Meanwhile, as controversies and confusions intensify, countries across the world have already enforced fuel economy regulations. OTHER COUNTRIES The United States, especially California, the European Union, Japan, Canada, Australia, China, South Korea and Taiwan are some of these nations. However, each has adopted the regulations according to its own requirements, priorities and interests. Broadly, there are two approaches: Regulation of fuel consumption or fuel economy of vehicles: This is done either by setting a standard based on fuel consumption per unit of distance travelled by a vehicle (litre per 100 km); or, regulate miles or kilometres per unit of fuel used (km/l). Japan, and China have set fuel economy regulations. Regulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including carbon dioxide: Emissions of GHGs from vehicles is also linked to fuel consumption. While California is the only region in the world to have adopted GHG emissions standards for vehicles, the EU directly regulates carbon dioxide emissions from its fleet. A word of caution A lot can go wrong if fuel economy regulations are not properly designed. For example, the US made the mistake of keeping the standards for SUVs lax initially, when the numbers were very small. When the share of SUVs skyrocketed over time, the average went completely awry. Again, the EU had entered into a voluntary agreement with the car industry associations to meet the carbon dioxide emissions reduction target by 2008, on a fleet-wide basis, and expected to make huge fuel savings. But voluntarism just did not work, and the EU nations failed to meet the carbon dioxide reduction target. Obviously, this kind of voluntarism and regulations that are hard to monitor will not work in India. Like China, India needs to develop a system that is mandatory, and is easy to monitor and enforce.
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