Why India’s new fuel-efficiency norms a missed opportunity | Explained
What is CAFE-3 carbon emission framework? What are its proposals for alternative technologies? How does it give automakers an escape route? Why is this seen as a missed opportunity?
The Indian government has recently introduced the third phase of Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE-3) norms for passenger vehicles, set to take effect on April 1, 2027, and remain in force until March 31, 2032. These norms aim to progressively tighten the fleet fuel-consumption benchmark, improving it by about 16.7% over five years.
The revised norms apply to new passenger vehicles manufactured or imported for sale in India and use the Modified Indian Driving Cycle (MIDC) to calculate fleet-average fuel consumption. To incentivize the adoption of cleaner technologies, the norms give additional weight to battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, flex-fuel strong hybrids, and flex-fuel ethanol vehicles in calculating a manufacturer’s fleet average.
Each of these vehicles counts as a certain number of vehicles in the calculation, with battery electric vehicles receiving the highest weight of three vehicles. Manufacturers can earn, carry forward, and trade CAFE credits during a compliance block, and deficits can be offset by purchasing credits from the Bureau of Energy Efficiency.
The norms also provide Carbon Neutrality Factors for vehicles using ethanol and biofuels, reducing declared CO₂ emissions for ethanol-blended petrol, flex-fuel ethanol, CNG, and diesel vehicles.
Brief written by urgent.news from The Hindu's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
