The government seems to have finally cleared the air over the implementation of emission standards, much to the relief of automakers in the country. According to reports, the government is not likely to implement the BS-VI emission norm by skipping the BS-V emission standard entirely, as its internal studies have revealed that doing so may not be feasible.

Although the national auto fuel policy states that BS-V be adopted in 2020 and BS-VI in 2024, the government had indicated earlier this year that it was considering advancing the implementation of the latter and bringing it forward by skipping the BS-V stage altogether.

Automakers had voiced their displeasure over the proposed move, citing huge expenses towards incorporating design changes, uncertainty over ability of oil marketing companies to provide the requisite fuel in time for the shift, as well as reliability issues.

Apex industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers of India (SIAM) had cautioned that skipping the BS-V emission norms and moving directly to BS-VI could lead to major reliability issues in vehicles since the automakers would not get adequate time to validate the technology before putting it on the Indian roads. It takes 4-4.5 years to develop, test and validate each emission norm, they said.

India previously followed the European emission norms with a time lag of five years, but this has been further delayed with the lag in implementation of BS-IV and BS-V. While BS-IV norms are being currently implemented in more than 30 cities where the required grade of fuel is available, the rest of the country follows BS-III standards.