Indian makers of passengers vehicles comprising cars, vans, and utility vehicles achieved corporate average fuel economy (CAFE)- a measure of carbon emission of a vehicle – of 116.78 gm per km in the year ended March 31 2023, missing the target of 113 gm per km set by the ministry of road transport & highways (MoRTH), said several people aware of developments.
“It’s still work-in-progress, and we have yet to take a final call. There will be a lot of stakeholder consultations cutting across various ministries. The industry has managed to bring up the score from 130 gm/km to 115-116 now which is a great progress. Having said that, one can’t say they were almost there, hence we are carefully looking into it,” said a government official and one of the persons cited above.
The public disclosure of last year’s CAFE score has been delayed for more than 2-3 months as the filing of individual scores by automakers in a specified format was behind schedule. Automakers submitted their CAFE scores in the desired format only a few days ago to the government’s testing agency – ICAT (International Centre of Automotive Technology), which forwarded it to the MoRTH.
At 95gms CO2/km, fuel economy standards in Europe are stricter than India’s 113, said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director at New Delhi-based think-tank Centre for Science and Environment.The tighter standards in Europe have enabled more rapid transition to electrified powertrains despite their bigger and heavier engines. This has reinforced the need for innovation in India’s automotive industry to meet stringent benchmarks, she said. “Given the motorisation level and steady shift towards bigger engines in India, the shortfall in the CAFE score could be a setback for the overall reduction in the carbon emissions India is aiming for,” she said.ashutosh.shyam@timesgroup.com
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