PRESS RELEASE OF 23^rd February 2001

For the first time in the history of the emission standards setting process a major step forward has been catalysed by a public campaign with no thanks to the environment ministry. While the automobile industry has come forward to take responsibility for the emission performance of the vehicles on road in the face of a strong NGO demand, the ministry of environment and forests is still sleeping. May be people can do without the ministry of environment and forests or for that matter the ministry of surface transport, supposedly in charge of regulating vehicular emissions in the country.

NEW DELHI, February 23: The Centre for Science and Environment is happy at the announcement made by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) to provide emission warranty to all vehicles in a phased manner from July 1 2001, in cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, and Mumbai where Euro II emission standards have already been implemented. Industry’s announcement is a major victory for the CSE’s Right to Clean Air campaign in Delhi that has been demanding since 1997 that along with the consumers the manufacturers must also be made responsible for the tailpipe emissions from in-use vehicles for the duration of their useful life. CSE’s dialogue with the automobile industry came to head in December 1999 when CSE had demanded that two-stroke two-wheelers fitted with catalytic converters with dubious durability claims could not be allowed in Delhi unless the two-wheeler industry was prepared to take the full responsibility for it. Following a round table discussion with CSE in December 1999, the two-wheeler industry had announced its willingness to provide emissions warranty on catalytic converters fitted to two-stroke two-wheelers for 30,000 kilometers. But now the warranty has been extended to all categories of vehicles and all parts related to pollution. The dragnet has now been broadened with a more definite plan of action to include other categories of vehicles as well.

While addressing a press conference today in the capital CSE spokesperson Anumita Roychowdhury said, "We are delighted that the automobile industry has responded to our demand. But it is unfortunate that while the automobile industry has come forward to shoulder the responsibility for emission performance of the vehicles on roads, the government of India has not even bothered to respond to tell us how are they planning to implement emissions warranty if ever." The committee that has been set up under the India’s auto oil programme by the Ministry of Environment and Forests under the Central Pollution Control Board to recommend future mass emission norms is not even considering inclusion of emission warranty and recall systems or revision of exhaust emission standards. This, when the government itself treats in-use vehicles as the whipping boy to shirk responsibilities to improve fuel and engine standards and transport planning to cut emissions.

If the government now fails to frame the appropriate laws and norms to implement the emissions warranty programme then the industry’s warranty programme will continue to be pegged on to the extremely inadequate pollution under control certificate (PUC) programme currently in force. PUC is given if the carbon monoxide emissions in petrol vehicles do not exceed 3 per cent by volume of exhaust and to diesel vehicles on the basis of the smoke opacity. These exhaust emission norms of 1990 and still apply these uniformly to all generation of vehicles – be it pre-1990 vehicles or Euro II compliant vehicles.

But emission warranty is enforced in relation to the mass emission standards that manufacturers meet at the factory gate. Thereafter, the vehicles are allowed of deteriorate only by a specified fraction and not more during the useful life of the vehicle that is 80,000 km. If the sample of vehicles of one model year are found to have deteriorated more than the specified rate at half life then it shows that technical malfunction is responsible. In that case manufacturers are asked to recall the entire batch of that car model, repair it at their own costs and return it back to the consumers. The emission warranty programme has not been proposed for the first time in India. This is already a widely practiced system in countries with more sophisticated inspection and maintenance programmes for in-use vehicles like the US and Sweden. The emissions warranty and recall programme is designed in other countries to detect malfunctioning of emissions control system causing excessive emissions. The purpose of this programme is to reveal technical malfunction in the emission control systems. According to Michael Walsh, an international automobile consultant and the former director of mobile source division of the USEPA, about 2 million vehicles are recalled every year in the US on this account. A wide range of dream car models – Ford Fiesta, Honda Civic 1500, Audi 100, and Opel Vectra, have actually been pulled off the road at least once for failing emission tests in these countries. If new vehicles are failing tests in the US and Sweden, it is far worse in India where emission certification is done in a most non-transparent manner.

CSE strongly believes that only an emission warranty and a recall programme will force the manufacturers to pay attention to how to control on road deterioration. In fact, Motor Testing Centre, Sweden has informed that with the enforcement of this system in Sweden, the number of recalls are going down as the manufacturers are learning to control on road deterioration. CSE has advocated emission warranty on the ground that even new vehicles pollute heavily and cannot be blamed entirely on grounds of poor maintenance. This has been proved even in India. Surveys conducted in Delhi in 1998 have shown that as much as 40 per cent of the new cars on road had failed the pollution under control (PUC) tests. Even in Mumbai it has been reported that the brand new taxis are failing the PUC tests. What is even more shocking is that there is no test available to find out if the basic emission control systems like the catalytic converters are working or not especially after running on high sulphur petrol that poisons the catalysts. It is vital that if Delhi has to get the full benefit of the Supreme Court order directing imposition of Euro II norms, these and the subsequent norms should be accompanied by an emission warranty and recall system. Otherwise, manufacturers will continue to meet the mass emission norms only at the factory gate, while the consumer will be left to bear the penalty of bad manufacturing.

CSE has always been against the PUC system that it considers being the most fraudulent approach to pollution control. Emissions from vehicles on roads are excessive not because of the bad maintenance practices alone but more so because of the dirty fuel and poor engine technology. But the government only chooses to harass the public and not the industry.

CSE demands:

• Now that the automobile industry has come forward to give emission warranty for all types of vehicles, the government must now work with the automobile industry to frame a monitoring system to check on road deterioration as an immediate priority. To begin, the government must start a non-punitive recall system. And only when the industry gains in experience in detecting technical problems with their vehicles on road and rectifies it voluntarily and free of cost, more stringent punitive system of recall can be put in place.