From April 01, 2013, car buyers in India will be able to choose their vehicles based on their mileages. Ajay Mathur, Director General, Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), confirmed this news. This move is a step towards making commuting more economical by reducing carbon emissions as well as fuel consumption.
Mathur stated, "It will be mandatory for manufacturers to bring only those car models in the market which are matching our fuel efficiency standards from April 1, 2013. They will have star categories with five-star being the most fuel efficient and one-star the least."
Another official from BEE said, "Under this car labelling programme, the car manufacturers will have to continuously reduce the average fuel consumption of cars sold by them over the next 10 years. BEE hopes to achieve the reduction in fuel consumption per 100 km from the present 6 litres to 5.1 litres by 2016 and up to 4.4 litres per 100 km by 2021."
Surprisingly, the average weight of the cars in the country is on a rise, which affects the mileage. Just 9 to 16 per cent of models available in India are energy efficient. Over the last ten years, the total number of cars in the nation has multiplied by three, which may translate into an additional fuel burden of 25 million oil equivalent. According to a consultation paper released by BEE, only 32 models out of 330 available in India come into the five-star bracket, while 52 others are classified as four-star vehicles.
According to BEE, cars that use 7 litres of fuel for every 100 km fall under the ambit of five-star category. On the other hand, four-star cars are those which consume 7-9 litre for every 100 km, while models that use up 9-11 litre per 100 km go to the three-star category. One-star bracket comprises of models which consume 12 litre or more for every 100 km.
As per the initial findings by BEE, the three-star bracket includes the highest number of cars (105), while the two-star category consists of 69 models. In the one-star category, there are 72 models in all in India. This shows that there are fewer fuel efficient models in India as compared to efficient ones. The 1-star and 5-star models sell only 62-72 models of every 1,000 cars sold, taking into consideration that the volumes of car market in the country runs into thousands. With 625 units sold out of every 1,000 units, the four-star models sell the highest number of cars. On the other hand, the cars in 2- and 3-star categories also sell well, with 535-585 units per 1,000 vehicles.
