Mercedes to Maruti: Cars Causing More Pollution in India Than Europe

The study found that the Mercedes Benz C 220d , Toyota Land Cruiser 200 GX , Mahindra XUV 500 and Hyundai i20 diesel models in India emit 455% more particulate matter and over 200% more poisonous nitrogen oxide. The difference is because India, less than half actually, follows Euro 4 or Bharat Stage 4 whereas Europe is now at the vastly improved Euro 6.

Vikram Kirloskar, Vice Chairman, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said," Production of Euro 5 & 6 engines is related to fuel quality. BS 4 fuel is available in India so BS4 engines are manufactured, cleaner engine can't be manufactured by itself. When Euro 5 and 6 fuel is available in India, our cars will produce the same emissions as in Europe.

Mercedes-Benz said: "Mercedes-Benz vehicles manufactured in India comply with the existing regulatory limits (BS IV). In case of stricter emission standards, we can offer our EU 6 diesel models that are already in use in Europe, today. However, this requires the availability of compatible fuel quality than the existing one, across the country."

Mahindra responded to study findings and said, "XUV 500 has been developed in India for Indian emission legislation norms like any other car. To bring Euro 6 legislation and technology, availability of Euro 6 fuel across all over India is the key point."

But what about petrol cars? The BS 4 standard petrol cars sold in Delhi are currently 7 times cleaner than diesel ones. But Maruti Celerio and Honda City petrol models emit 33% more NOx in India as against the European and Australian models.

Maruti-Suzuki Chairman, RC Bhargava said, "The problem is not with us , we need the right fuel and component manufacturers in India need time to manufacture euro 5 and euro 6 engine components.

Honda said they were not aware of the ICCT's findings but said they are committed to follow the government norms which "require a concerted approach from the government, oil industry, auto manufacturers and testing agencies to realize Euro 6 goal in a realistic time frame"

That's the essence of why Euro 6 is still six years away in India whereas Europe adopted it last year despite the Delhi government demanding it in 2 years.

Centre has proposed to impose Euro 5 norms by 2019 and stringent Euro 6 norms by 2021. The environment minister says the upgrade will cost 60,000 crore rupees.

ICCT's comparison is based broadly on emission standards set by United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

Ray Minjares,who leads the Clean Air Program at ICCT, told NDTV, "Manufacturers are worried about delivering cleaner cars at the expense of profit. Let's be honest the concern is the cost but there is a benefit that comes from this cost which we can think as an investment in clean air."

But the sting was in the last comparison for a Bharat Stage 3 vehicle.The Indian model of Tata Xenon XT emitted 10 times more particulate matter and over 5 times more nitrogen oxide than the Australian model.

This is the norm in force in more than half of India.

Tata responded saying,"In Europe, the journey from Euro3 to Euro6 took 9 years. To expect a similar transition in India, in less than half the time is impractical. Euro5 require low sulphur fuel. This fuel not expected to be available in India until 2020"

Moving to euro 6 can cut the poisonous emissions from our cars up to 3 times. Auto manufacturers already have the technology to manufacture euro 5 and 6 engines and they are in fact producing these cleaner engines in India but that's only for European markets.

But the ICCT study shows these manufacturers are capable of making cleaner cars. It's just a question of changing the law.