It is not clear whether Volkswagen diesel car sales in India require investigation. Market-watchers say that sales of all Volkswagen cars are small but growing with nearly 12 per cent market penetration in 2014-15. The numbers of sales of the affected models is not available. Official reaction from the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to this development is not immediately available. But it is understood that the new development is on the watch list. It is not known if India will also initiate a probe.
But the larger question is -- is India prepared to ensure that vehicles that it certifies meet emissions standards and continue to perform with minimum deviation from the conformity required when they are on the roads?
It may be recalled that India already had a brush with serious corporate fraud when General Motors sold 114,000 units of the Tavera SUV model between 2005 and 2012” both BS-III and BS-IV variants, by tampering with conformity of production processes and type approval tests for vehicle certification. They had pre-selected and got models tested that were fitted with improved engines but in reality, they continued to sell the vehicles saddled with older engines until they were caught. The ministry of road transport and highways had to initiate a probe and the company admitted to the fraud. The company had to recall 114,000 units of the Tavera.
India is dieselising very rapidly. Diesel cars were just four per cent of the new car sales in 2000 that has become more than half now. Moreover, diesel based freight has seen massive expansion. The current quality of diesel technology and fuels has serious health concerns. This demands quick leapfrog to Euro VI emissions standards to meet cleaner benchmark. While that will have to be pushed hard it is also now necessary to ensure that the emissions control systems in new diesel vehicles perform all through the life of the vehicles.
India will require strong durability requirements and in-use compliance standards at 50,000 and 80,000 km (half to full life on the road) to verify that vehicles are still functioning within the conformity factor without much variation when they are on the road. This system will have to be put in place right away at the current Bharat Stage IV. Already, diesel buses meeting Bharat Stage IV standards are coming equipped with more complex emissions control systems like SCR that require the bus operators to refill urea. If these systems are not functioning optimally, NOx emissions from these buses will be uncontrolled. This is the time to design and implement in-use compliance systems, along with emissions warranty and recall programme that is based on rigorous in-use vehicle testing. India needs these systems quickly to prevent frauds and to ensure lifelong performance of emissions control systems. India needs an additional fiscal strategy to curb dieselization as well.
Ray Minjares and Anup Bandivadekar of US-based The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) observed, “Vehicle standards alone are not enough. They must be followed by a system of enforcement. This requires an independent government body with the resources (staff, testing labs) and authority (provided under law) to test real-world vehicle emissions and validate their performance. The law should provide such a body with the authority to issue recalls, levy fines, withdraw approval for sale into the market, and other actions necessary to ensure that vehicles conform with the stated emission standards.” This is needed to build consumer trust and confidence as well.
These systems do exist in the US but one potential limitation of the US approach is they do not do more real-world testing themselves, otherwise they could have caught the Volkswagen fraud themselves. The European approach is even weaker. European regulators do not have the same authority and do not place the same requirements on real-world performance. They have struggled for years to take decisive action to resolve the high diesel NOx problem.
The message is clear. India will have to speed up its technology roadmap to clean up diesel but at the same time fix the legal in-use compliance framework to ensure that the new technologies deliver on their intended emissions reduction targets. But as it is also evident from the experience of the European cities, an extra step is also needed to discourage diesel cars to meet clean air targets and protect public health. Down to Earth Feature Service
