India to Move Forward With Fuel Economy Standards

3 June 2009

Times of India. The government of India will implement automotive fuel economy standards. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) will formulate the norms and notify them under the Energy Conservation Act while the surface transport ministry will ensure the implementation.

The norms will be developed on the basis of mileage that petrol and diesel vehicles give, sources in the road transport and highway ministry told TOI. With the top office in the government deciding a compromise, BEE is now expected to move fast to implement labelling of vehicles in the first phase which will then be converted into mandatory standards, pushing up the mileage of cars over years just as is done in the case of appliances for energy efficiency.

...while the ministry talked of the implementation part, some representatives of the auto sector continued to harp on the use of carbon dioxide as the basis of deciding the norms and demanded that it be legally put on the list of ‘local pollutants’.