With the ongoing technological upgradations, the design and development of the engine is also improving, in order to make it fuel efficient and environment-friendly. The government has set certain limits on the emission of certain air pollutants by all the vehicles that run on roads. This is termed as Bharat Stage or BS emission norm. Till 2010, all the vehicles manufactured in 13 major cities of our country were based on BS III norms after which BS Vi was implemented with modified engines that worked on the oil that produced lesser pollutants on combustion met by the upgradation in the type of fuel, ie, petrol and diesel usage and the engine that intake the fuels for its operation.
The plan was to bring BS V in 2020 followed by BS V. But the Indian Govt. has abruptly decided to switch to the BS VI emission norms, skipping the BS V norms in lieue of the increasing pollution because of the increasing amount of particulate matter in our environment. Also, it is seen that other countries like China and USA are already following BS V norms. The switch would require a complete replacement of the better fuel to their respective pumps which would require a massive amount of Rs. ten thousand crores. Also, the cars with BS IV based engines have already been put in the manufacturing procedure. Auto sector is in a huge tumult as to what they are supposed to do with those vehicle as the replacement cost of the engine would be impossibly high.
It will also increase the cost of the vehicles, ie, petrol based cars shall cost Rs. 20 to 30 thousand more while the diesel ones shall cost Rs. 75 thousand to 1 lakh more. It is likely to reduce the demand and a big loss to the auto sector.
It is noted that not much difference is their between BS VI and BS V norms while there is a heavy difference in the BS IV and BS V shift in terms of the engineering input on the rebuild of the body design and engine modifications and a considerable change in the oil refinement. Thus, leaving a step in between is likely to cause nothing but loss and it is unclear if their will be any investments from the government's side in this project.
