The Bharat Stage VI fuel standards cited as part of the draft notification by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways have been disapproved by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), deeming the norms ‘highly diluted’. It feels the BS VI norms will allow the supply of “even further downgraded fuel in the North East region till 2023”.
SIAM said the most crucial details prescribed under the contentious norms are not at par with the Euro VI standards prevalent in Europe and will take India back to the era of BS II specifications. The auto body further said that fuel characteristics like octane number and density prescribed for BS VI are ‘inferior’ to Euro VI norms.
SIAM pointed out under that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways’ draft has set Research Octane Number (RON) for regular petrol at 91 while that under Euro VI norms is 95. Similarly, the Motor Octane Number (MON) for BS VI is set at 81 while in Euro VI it is 85. It further added that the key parameters for diesel, such as the ’95 per cent recovery’ and ‘density’ have been compromised.
Vishnu Mathur, Director General, SIAM, said, “Lower octane number of fuel will lead to lower fuel efficiency of vehicles and overall combustion.”
Criticizing the government’s proposal, SIAM has demanded “exactly the same BS VI fuel as per Euro 6 fuel standards prevalent in Europe if it has to meet the BS VI norms for vehicles”.
PTI