Adoption new technology is one of the key challenge for Automotive Industry in India. New Emission norms and features like ABS is going to play important role to give new shape to Indian Auto Industry. New Automotive Technology Implementation and impact report describe challenges, implications, advantages, cost and other market dynamics about Auto technology.

The following graph compares the emission standards for light duty vehicles.

Emission Norms for Heavy Engine:

Following two years of continuous descent of the Indian Automotive Industry, there is now an established escalation in the same, owing to various factors. However, a multitude of challenges lie in store for the industry as the government plans on enforcing stricter emission standards.

The CO, HC+NOx, NOx and PM emissions have been analysed over the Bharat Stages 1V,V and VI for diesel engines. In the case of Carbon Monoxide emissions, the figures have remained relatively stagnant over the stages. The HC+NOx emissions on the other hand has dwindled down significantly through the stages. It has seen close to a 50% decrease in emissions as observed from the above graph. NOx has also seen a decrease in emissions over Bharat stages IV,V and VI by more than 50%. PM emissions on the other hand have showcased an astounding 80% decrease in emissions through the three stages.

The state of pollution in India:

After the years of 2013 and 2014 that have been particularly difficult for the Automotive sector, 2015 has finally witnessed a huge positive growth. Over the year, production rose by 4.3%, the sales figures skyrocketed to a growth of 6% while exports increased by 2.7% over the same period. This hike in sales especially could be attributed mainly to the sales of passenger cars, particularly popular in the compact car segment. The Indian market is unique in its preference to diesel engines over the others. Consequently, India serves as one of the largest markets of diesel engine share. These diesel subsidies have managed to direct customer preferences allowing the immersion of diesel engines in vehicles from 20% to 50% in the period from 2000 to 2015. This penetration is seen even today with the vast difference in fuel prices (inclusive of taxes) between gasoline and diesel, in favour of diesel.

With the increasing quantity of vehicles on the present day road, quality of the air we breathe is being subsequently plummeted to an all new low. This decrease in air quality due to pollution caused by over congested roads with vehicles is more stark in mega cities like Delhi and Bangalore. Air pollution can be primarily attributed to heavy traffic and un-contained emission levels. Owing to these factors, these days there are inbuilt mechanisms in vehicles to combat the effects of air pollution. Many smog fighting mechanisms have been introduced recently by the sector. The pollution levels in New Delhi have become alarmingly high and the government has been forced to push for new and improved emission norms to keep the pollution levels at bay. The government has ruled that privately owned vehicles in New Delhi will be permitted to operate only every alternate day. As a result of this, there has been a tremendous impact in the pollution figures that are reported by the government to have gone down by more than 50%. Owing to this method’s huge success, the government has decided to enforce strict measures and make usage limitations more stringent. Adding to this and in order to multiply impact, the Supreme court has ordered a ban on registration of diesel cars and SUVs beyond 2000cc all over New Delhi, in effect from the March of 2016. Additionally, the government plans to bring in more stringent norms on emission in highly crowded areas to improve air quality.

Indian Standards:

“Bharat Stages” is India’s emission standard and it runs along with the European standards with a time lapse of five years. These standards were enforced to regulate the emissions of Carbon Monoxide (CO), Hydrocarbons (HC), Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) and Particulate Matter (PM). These levels are analysed with the help of the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC). The most recent version of the Bharat Stages is the BS III, at par with Euro 3. This version is widely popular world-wide. However, BSIV is being enforced in some of the largest cities of the country. The government is advancing the emission standards forward by huge strides that it is willing to overlook past BS V and implementing BS VI. They have advanced this implementation from April 2024 to April 2020. Though this plan has been thrown down by the supreme court, it is expected to pass through in some time and is expected to be on track as predicted by 2020.

In addition to multiplying design time and considerably increasing investment more than what is already put in, the jump to BS VI has been described by few as being overly ambitious. In order to update technological advancements in accordance with the more stringent emissions, the change in cost will mostly impact the customers. Also, the technical constraints are higher on the more popular diesel engines than ones than run on gasoline. Apart from this, the exhaust has to be treated before being expelled. BSV needs an installation of diesel oxidation catalysts, diesel filters and NOx absorbers for vehicles with more than a 2000cc engine. Additionally, the BS VI aims to equip some vehicles with a selective catalyst reduction (SCR) module. The engines as a result of BS V and VI put in a lot less strain on NOx emissions as they are more stringent and control the emissions by a considerable amount. A huge disadvantage that exists with using these high technologically equipped modules in Indian vehicles is that there is just not enough speed to create that high temperature environment that is required to burn away soot in the particulate filter. These ideas need a lot more time to be available and compatible with the Indian road scenario and several tests are yet to be made to enforce the same over a large amount of time and over a long stretch of kilometers. Though it is a highly ambitious view to enforce BS VI by 2020, tremendous efforts are being put in to make this compatible.

How does the future look like?

A more holistic approach is being taken to battle with the pollution that plague our country’s air. Slowly, everyone has recognized that the entire automotive chain is needed to bring about this change and enforce these measures that will ultimately lead to a cleaner, breathable atmosphere. Apart from the automotive sector, the construction and energy sectors are also needed to bring about the impact that is required.

There are a great many techniques to reduce air pollution apart from enforcing stricter emission standards. Additional exhausts after treatment of the emissions could help in immediately reducing harmful emissions. By altering the prices of diesel and petrol engines, the preference of customers can be swayed towards reducing dieselization, directly resulting in lesser emissions of NOx and PM. Apart from this, the government can stress on the need for more green and clean fuels in vehicles. However, these propulsion need to be imported and customers need to be equipped to handle the increased costs of the same. High import duties and prices plague the imported “green” fuels. In the future, these can be used to encourage the appetite of customers towards these more BS VI compliant options. Another aspect that needs to be changed is the preference to private transportation as opposed to public ones. Wider application of public transportation could change this scenario and also bring about a huge turn around for the pollution levels in the country.

About ABS Sysytem:

• A very good market potential exist for manufacturers and suppliers for Advanced Safety system like ABS, EBD , LDW system in India after the mandate on safety regulation becoming stringent in India
• Scenario exist where a project sales volume of ABS to raise significantly to that of equivalent to vehicle produced in India market. This is best in case scenario which triples the in-take rate of safety component. Currently, there are only few significant Tier 1 supplier like Continental, Wabco, Bosch to handle this with significant amount of investment on R&D and mainstream production
• Technology cost of ABS which is approximately Rs 75,000 in India need currently need to be localised for mass market penetration. As add on technology cost to the vehicle is always a burden on buyer /customer
• Emission Norm requirement are also mandatory, whereby a technology cost of ~ 52000Rs is required to meet future BS VI requirement
• No significant overlap on Emission and Safety requirement except in below mentioned instance where author can think of

1. High Speed contribution on ABS being attributed to City driving on Emissions

   2.Engine Braking being trade-off with Brake system thermal failure