Centre for Science and Environment condemns the automobile industry for not taking the responsibility for the emission performance of the vehicles on road for the duration of their useful life. Knowing very well that even the new vehicles are failing the on-road emission tests, the industry conveniently turns a nelson eye towards the problem of manufacturing defects in vehicles causing high emissions on road. CSE demands that nothing less than emission warranty for all vehicles is needed to ensure that the industry is fully responsible for the on-road deterioration of the emission control systems in the vehicles so that the consumers are not made to pay for bad manufacturing.

NEW DELHI, December 5: The Centre for Science and Environment is shocked at the way automobile industry has launched its offensive against the consumers in the capital to project that high emissions from poorly maintained vehicles are responsible for air pollution in the cities. A two days seminar on inspection and maintenance (I&M) programme organised by the Society for Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) just concluded follows close on heels of yet another SIAM sponsored workshop that presented the results of an I&M programme conducted by SIAM in the capital a year ago. This just goes to show how desperate the industry is to shift the focus from their assembly line to the tailpipes. While addressing a press conference in the Capital today CSE spokesperson Anumita Roychowdhury said, "Instead of telling us how the automobile industry plans to take the responsibility for the emission performance of the vehicles on road, they are once again passing the buck to the consumers – blaming them for poor maintenance and high emissions, ignoring the fact the consumers are being made to pay for manufacturing defects."

The fact that even new vehicles pollute heavily and cannot be blamed entirely on grounds of poor maintenance 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.

"Manufacturers are as much responsible for the emission levels of vehicles on road and must be made accountable for it," says Roychowdhury. Even roadside surveys conducted by the California Air Resources Board have proved that high emission levels of many vehicles were due to malfunctioning of emissions control system. Precisely to address this problem other countries have started emission warranty and recall programme for the manufacturers. In other words, the industry takes a warranty on the emissions that their vehicles will emit. This principle has been fully integrated in the pollution control programmes in the US and Sweden. The purpose of this programme is to reveal technical malfunction in the emission control systems. Properly maintained vehicles should fulfill the emission standards. If they still fail then it shows that technical malfunction is responsible for the problem. 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. 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. It is most shocking that in India the automobile industry is dumping two-wheelers fitted with catalytic converters with doubtful durability on the unsuspecting consumers without informing them about the problem. Already tests conducted in the IOCL R&D Centre, Faridabad, have shown that new two-wheelers fitted with catalytic converters are not being able to meet the standards. In fact, when the two wheeler industry faced the threat of ban on two-stroke two-wheeler they made a cosmetic gesture of accepting emission warranty to escape the ban. But made no effort thereafter to put this system in place.

Why should Indian government spread its resources thin checking each and every tailpipe of 30 million odd vehicles across the country when it is well established that the programme makes no substantial difference to air pollution levels? Both the industry and the government refuse to learn from the experience with I&M in other countries. India’s PUC scheme has turned out to be a major farce and the government has not taken any action to assess the effectiveness of this programme.

SIAM must note that various studies conducted in the US have shown that I&M programme that costs a whopping $ 1 billion in the US, has not made much difference to any city’s air quality in the US. Contrary to expectations that I&M would reduce carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions by 30 per cent, it has been a mere 5 per cent in many cities. In fact, the final report on evaluation of California’s enhanced vehicles inspection and maintenance programme released in July 2000 says, that during the last one year of this programme, the combined emission reduction of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides has been just about 40 tonnes per day against the reduction target of 110 tonnes per day. It may not be easy to believe but studies and surveys have established that manipulation and corruption at the roadside checks are hindering the effectiveness of this programme even in the US. The rate of tampering in the US has been found to be as high as 30 per cent. In India it is just about anybody’s guess.

It is most ironic that SIAM should be so keen to set up more I&M centres but should remain silent about the need to tighten the exhaust emission norms for on-road emission tests. In India the exhaust emission norms have not been revised since 1990 and are uniformly applied to all generation of vehicles – be it pre-1990 vehicles or Euro II compliant vehicles. But the countries like the US with more sophisticated programmes have set more stringent exhaust emission standards according to the age and the weight of the vehicles, for testing of vehicles on roads.

It is more important to ask why should we test all vehicles when actually a very small numbers of vehicles cause the problem? CSE would advise SIAM to take a closer look at the figures that they themselves are quoting that just about 15 per cent of vehicles on road contribute more than 50 per cent of emissions. Even CSE’s own analysis of the emission results of the in-use vehicles conducted by the Automotive Research Association of India has shown that just about 20 per cent of the vehicles contribute about 40 per cent of the total carbon monoxide emissions. This repudiates all logic as to why should all the vehicles be tested on road? In fact, the results of the emission tests of 66,000 in-use two wheelers by SIAM last year has shown that as much as 90 per cent of the vehicles actually passed the PUC test and less than 6 per cent of the two-wheelers failed even after tuning. This clearly shows that any I&M programme will have to target a small percentage of worst polluters (or gross polluters) on road and weed them out. In other countries focus is shifting towards identification of the worst polluters on road. This is done either through very sophisticated techniques of On Board Diagnostic systems that can detect any anomaly in the emission control system in the vehicles, remote sensors on road or through a very simple technique of visual inspection to identify the smoking vehicles.

Says Roychowdhury, "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 demands that any blue print on I&M programme in India must have the following elements:

Emission warranty and recall system for the manufacturers for all types of vehicles so that they are accountable for the emission performance for the useful life of the vehicles on road.
The PUC system should be immediately reviewed for its effectiveness. Any inspection and maintenance programme in India must focus on identification of the smaller number of worst polluters (gross polluters) on road instead of checking each and every vehicle on road and harass everybody.
The easiest way to do that would be through visual inspection with civil society participation. The automobile industry must at the same time improve emission standards fast so that the more sophisticated systems like On Board Diagnostic systems are installed in vehicles themselves to detect anomalies.
Tightening of exhaust emission standards for on-road inspection.
We demand greater transparency in emission certification process. Only that can reveal how even new vehicles even after being certified for new emission standards fail to pass the PUC tests on road.