The Hindu Business Line : New emission norms lead to shake-out in diesel car segment

THE changeover to the more stringent Bharat Stage III emission norm for passenger cars, which came into effect from April 1, has quietly led to a shakeout in the diesel passenger car segment.

The new norms are so severe that quite a few of the existing diesel cars will not meet the standards. As a result, companies such as Maruti Udyog and Ford India have had to alter the strategies for their diesel-driven vehicles.

Maruti has decided to discontinue production of the diesel versions of its popular Zen and Esteem models. These vehicles were being offered with the Peugeot TUD5 diesel engine, which was imported from the French company in small numbers to cater to the niche demand for these two models.

Maruti officials said existing Zen Di and Esteem Di vehicles in the market will continue to be serviced by the company and that the discontinuance of these diesel-powered vehicles will not hit the company's sales numbers, as they were not clocking big numbers anyway.

Company sources added that Maruti will not be renewing the contract with PSA Peugeot Citroen for sourcing the TUD5 engines.

Maruti will now wait to launch diesel cars after its new engine plant starts production of diesel engines that are being jointly developed with GM and Fiat.

In the case of Ford, which has had a fair degree of success with the diesel version of the Ford Ikon, the new BS III norms, applicable in 11 metros across the country, mean this car will have to be withdrawn from these markets.

Ford said the Ikon, which was being offered with the 1.8 Endura diesel engine, will not be available in these cities. It will continue to be marketed in the rest of the country where the BS II norm (Euro II equivalent) will be applicable.

Ford India officials said while about 30 per cent of the Ikon's sales is from its diesel engine version, almost 90 per cent of the sales comes from outside these 11 metros.

As far as the rest of the industry, Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra have already rolled out the BS III variants of their passenger car models. New norm variants of Hindustan Motors and Fiat India cars are expected to hit the showrooms later this month. Hyundai Motor India's diesel-engined versions of the Accent, Elantra and Terracan are already BS III compliant.

Industry observers point out thatthe reason for Ford's plan to withdraw the Ikon diesel from the 11 metros is cost-benefit economics.

The cost of developing and converting the existing diesel engine to meet the more rigorous emission standard is too high to be justified by the sales contributions of these models.

Changes leave buyers confused

THE switch to the new norms and the ensuing problems with regards to fuel quality and availability are confusing the car buyer.

FAQs include whether the non-availability of Bharat Stage II quality fuel in a few regions will pose a problem for BS III cars? Can all existing cars meet the new norms? And what are the changes to be made?

From Wednesday, cars sold in 11 Indian metros, will have to meet BS III (Euro III equivalent) and the rest of India will change to BS II norms from BS I standard.

A similar changeover in standards will also be applicable to the quality of fuel in these markets.

First, the phase-out of BS I on an all-India level signals the end of carbureted engines for passenger cars that are run on petrol. This means the multi-point fuel injection system that was introduced at the turn of the millennium to meet BS II norms will now become the standard.

The other changes that petrol engines and emission related components have to undergo are in the electronics used for the engine and the catalytic converter.

The changeover to BS III will need faster microprocessors to fine tune parameters such as quantity and timing of fuel injection aimed at reducing the level of emissions at the source itself. Many manufacturers would have, as a result, gone in for 32-bit chips for engine management or control units.

Catalytic converters purge the exhaust gases, and the ones in the BS II cars need to be replaced with more efficient catalysts for both petrol and diesel driven vehicles.

While the changes to be made in petrol-driven cars are relatively uncomplicated and inexpensive, the same cannot be said about the alterations in diesel cars.

It is not necessary for all diesel engines to opt for the popular common rail direct injection type system to meet the new normsIndirect injection and traditional direct injection diesel engines can be used to meet the BS III norms, by adopting exhaust gas re-circulation systems, turbo chargers, better injection monitoring and more efficient catalytic converters.

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