On the extremely contentious issue of more lenient emission caps for small cars, SIAM had maintained that its members could not reach consensus.The frequent back-and-forth over emission norms for India’s car makers may be inching towards closure as the matter has now reached the Prime Minister’s Office. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), tasked with framing the Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) norms applicable from 2027-28, has revised its proposals at least thrice since the first version was unveiled before stakeholders in 2024.
Each subsequent version contains multiple changes to proposed carbon dioxide emission caps for OEMs for five years through FY32.
Multiple sources confirmed today that advisor to the Prime Minister, Tarun Kapoor, called a meeting of officials from the concerned ministries, including the Ministry of Heavy Industries, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, and the Ministry of Power, to streamline the process and expedite the framing of the final guidelines.
OEMs already meeting emission caps: BEE
According to a presentation made by the BEE in a February 10 meeting called by Heavy Industries Minister H D Kumaraswamy, all of India’s large OEMs – Maruti Suzuki India, Hyundai Motor India, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Toyota Kirloskar Motors and Kia met the target for CO2 emission under the existing CAFE II norms in 2023-24 and 2024-25. This is perhaps one of the reasons for BEE to stick to the stringent caps proposed for CAFE III.
In this presentation, which ETAuto saw, the BEE has said “performance versus target is widening, thus there is scope to set a stretched target”, while showcasing the widening gap between target emissions and actual emissions.
Put simply, this shows that the BEE has pooh-poohed the industry assertions that meeting stricter emission targets from FY27 would hurt.
SIAM sticks to view
Meanwhile, industry sources said today that the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has requested that BEE consider its views, given in November last year, as final. SIAM has termed the revisions made by the BEE in the latest proposal in average vehicle weight, annual emission targets (which BEE now wants tightened year on year) and other modified parameters as “challenging”. It has again underlined that there should be a single emission target for the five year block period, applicable from the fifth year onwards.
In the November representation, SIAM had said that the 71.5 gram CO2 emission target proposed by BEE (at that time) would mean a 63 per cent (or two-thirds) reduction from current levels in CAFE II, which is unprecedented globally. Such a strict threshold may result in premature scrapping of multiple vehicles, which will cause significant distress to the automotive industry, including auto component suppliers.”
SIAM had also given its views on multiple other issues in November last year. For example, regarding battery electric vehicle (BEV) emissions, SIAM had argued that their tailpipe emissions should be considered zero since this is “in line with CAFE norms” and “needed for India”.
The BEE proposal (the second version) pegged BEVs at 29 grams of emissions because the electricity used to charge them comes from at least 30 per cent non-renewable sources, and thus tailpipe emissions exist.
On changes proposed by BEE on super credits for electric vehicles and FCEVs, SIAM had pointed out that these are not “aligned with the government’s focus on these technologies”.
The latest proposal has reduced the super credits for BEVs from 4 to 3 in the previous draft; raised the credits for strong hybrids to 2.0 from 1.2; and introduced a new category of vehicles called Range Extender Electric Vehicles with three super credits.
Super credits are a form of regulatory adjustment that allows an OEM to count the sale of one low-emission vehicle as multiple vehicles in the fleet-average carbon dioxide emission calculation, making it easier for the OEM to meet overall emission targets.
Small vs big car
On the extremely contentious issue of more lenient emission caps for small cars, SIAM had maintained that its members could not reach consensus.
And the situation has not changed, with OEMs on both sides of the divide offering multiple reasons to support their respective positions. The latest BEE CAFE norms proposal has removed the earlier provision allowing small cars a 3g/l relaxation, but has also made other changes to tweak overall emission cap stats.>
