Delhi to Get BS6 Fuel from April 1, 2018 | BS6 Fuel Effect on BS4 Cars: As India recently jumped from the outdated BS3 to BS4 emission norms, Delhi is preparing for another jump, this time missing the BS5 in favor of much cleaner BS6 norms.
It won’t be mandatory for automakers to launch BS6 compliant cars under this deadline but fuel grade will be revised to remove maximum amount of sulphur. These emission standards run parallel to Euro norms and slows down the speed of environmental degradation.
Delhi to Get BS6 Fuel from April 1, 2018
No one in India is unaware of the situation that people in Delhi face everyday. The deadly smog cover has forced administration to declare holidays and advise people to stay inside with their air purifiers on full swing. This is not for the first time and still, government ignore these things and take matter lightly till something big happens.
Just after few hours of silent protest by people on various social media platforms, the government has planned to pre-pone the launch of BS6 fuel in Delhi. The same will be available from April 1, 2018 instead of the previous deadline of April 1, 2020.
BS6 Fuel Effect on BS4 Cars
The sulphur amount in BS6 diesel is almost nothing when compared to the current version. Instead of 500 ppm, the value will fall to just 10 ppm and hence, emissions will become much cleaner than the present situation. Sulphur actually helps in lubrication of injectors in diesel cars and low sulphur may result in internal wear of the components.
These effects were last noticed when cars moved from BS3 to BS4 emission standards. Still, if cars are tweaked accordingly, the amount of particulate matter will go down considerably. Effect on petrol cars will not be that much as compared to diesel.
Automakers actually know this fact better and they were not presently willing to go through this change. According to them, only changing the fuel won’t work and equal changes are required in the hardware too. BS6 fuel in BS4 cars is not a good idea.
Still some manufacturers like Mercedes, Audi, BMW and Volvo have BS6 cars in their lineup. They could get clear benefits from this decision as cleaner fuel will improve overall engine condition on these cars. However, if automakers take this decision in the other way, they can actually test their cars in real world conditions (for 2 years in Delhi) before official launch of BS6 fuel pan India.
Auto Manufacturers Response on BS6 Fuel
Dr Abhay Firodia in his role as the President of the Society Of Automotive Manufacturers (SIAM) said “the early introduction of BS VI fuel gives confidence to the Auto Industry that BS VI Fuel will be available across the country from 1st April 2020, when the Auto Industry will fully migrate to manufacturing only BS VI compliant vehicles on a pan India basis. Availability of BS VI fuel in Delhi from April 2018 also gives an opportunity to the vehicle manufacturers in this region to test and validate the BS VI vehicles being developed by the auto industry so as to be fully ready for the April 2020 deadline. Use of BS VI fuel with lower sulphur content may also improve the particulate emissions from the existing fleet of vehicles which are presently plying in the National Capital to some extent. In addition, if the Government also effectively enforces the order to remove old BS II and earlier vintage vehicles from plying in the National Capital, it would greatly reduce the contribution of vehicular pollution in the Region.”
R.S. Kalsi Senior Executive Director, Sales & Marketing of India’s largest automaker, Maruti Suzuki said, “Well I am yet to go through that report but these solutions will not help, I think one has to take an integrated entire view on these challenges of pollution and you know when we are talking about BS VI, industry needs time to gear up to that because that calls for big changes , engines in particularly and then the availability of that fuel needs to be across the country.” He added by saying, “The deadline that the government has given for BS VI, we are working towards that and it calls for big changes in the engine so we are working towards that deadline but any pre-ponement will not be possible. The amount of work involved in doing those changes is humongous and it becomes all the more difficult when you have such a widespread portfolio.”
Rakesh Srivastava, Director Sales &Marketing, Hyundai Motor India Limited said, “We are ready with the technology, however, certification and regulatory approvals will take time since as an industry we were working towards meeting the 2020 deadline, for the adoption of BS VI compliant vehicles.”
Jnaneswar Sen, Sr VP, Marketing and Sales, Honda Cars India Ltd responded to the move by the Ministry Of Petroleum And Natural Gas today saying, “We welcome the decision of Petroleum ministry to supply BS – VI fuel in Delhi from April 2018. Availability of BS-VI fuel ahead of BS-VI emission norms implementation will be a strong enabler for the auto industry’s ongoing development and testing activities. This is a step in the right direction and gives us confidence that the auto industry will be able to smoothly transition to BS-VI regime from April 2020. Honda is currently pursuing development and testing of BS-VI engines with related parties including Honda R&D Japan and our component suppliers, both local and overseas. We are committed to meet the schedule of BS-VI implementation stipulated by Govt. of India.”
Images Source: Google | Statement Source: NDTV | BS6 Fuel Effect on BS4 Cars
