Auto Industry not happy with Delhi’s new diesel car ban

The Auto Industry has expressed reservations on the Orders of the NGT passed today on stopping registration of diesel vehicles in NCT of Delhi.

“While SIAM respects the views of the NGT, we believe that this order is not based on scientific facts or study.

Delhi Government has already commissioned a Source Apportionment study with IIT Kanpur. The NGT could have waited for the study to enable it to take a rational decision based on data so that meaningful impact on air quality could be achieved. Whatever we have seen on the study reported in the media, only 2.5 per cent of PM 2.5 pollution is accounted by both petrol and diesel cars. Banning registration of clean BS IV (Euro 4 equivalent) diesel cars meeting the stringent international emission norms will therefore not have any impact on the air quality of Delhi. BS IV diesel vehicles are very clean and it would be wrong to claim them as unclean which would also undermine the GOI regulations on vehicular emissions.

Since banning of new diesel vehicles is a fresh matter which came before the Tribunal, the automotive industry would like the NGT to give it an opportunity to represent the true facts before taking a decision.

“It is not proper to stigmatise diesel technology based on the mis-information spread by the interested lobbies, especially when these comply to all the Government of India notified norms. Moreover, Diesel technology is highly fuel efficient and has upto 25-30% lower CO₂ which is a global warming gas. While the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India is talking about reducing our carbon footprint by 33-35% at the COP 21, we are moving in the opposite direction by stigmatizing diesel which can offer us lower CO₂ in our transport economy. Converting all diesel vehicles to petrol would drastically increase our CO₂ emissions, consumption of fossil fuels and thereby potentially compromising the country’s energy security.

Today, we have a plethora of authorities who are taking decisions on technology and regulatory matters of the auto industry, often with a limited understanding of the issues concerned. This is creating confusion in the minds of all the stakeholders including public, industry, government, judiciary, etc. Auto industry is a capital intensive industry requiring long term, stable roadmaps on technical and regulatory issues. Since the deregulation of diesel prices, the automotive industry has also made huge investments in diesel technology. Such decisions can derail the entire automotive industry with its consequent impact on the manufacturing sector as a whole and on the large scale employment it provides.

Moreover, industry is now working towards moving to higher BS V emission norms by 2019, which also include next generation diesel technologies. With this Order it appears these investments made by the industry and the technology development would be in serious jeopardy.

While the consumer, industry and the country as a whole will lose out hugely, the air quality of Delhi and the environment will not benefit at all due to its miniscule contribution to the pollution in Delhi.

The automotive industry has made all efforts in the last 15 years to reduce its emission footprint and would continue to contribute in this area. Banning one particular automotive technology will not serve any purpose.

The only way to address the challenge of air quality is to draw up a holistic, integrated, long and medium term approach to address all the sources of pollutants based on scientific data and analysis.