Cars in India to be branded with stars according their fuel efficiency.

BAJAJ RE60 MOST FUEL EFFICIENT CAR IN INDIA

India's most fuel efficient car Bajaj RE60

Categorisation of fuel efficient by stars.

• So far we had seen starred air conditioners or starred refrigerators. These starred products let the customers know how energy efficient s these products are. The more the number of the stars displayed on the product, the more energy efficient is the product. Now the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) is going to brand the cars to show how fuel efficient they are. This will help the customers to know the fuel efficiency of cars when they compare one car with the other at the time of buying a car. The prospective buyers whose preference for selecting a car is fuel efficiency among other considerations will easily know which car they should buy.

Why cars need to be branded as fuel efficient?

• Nowadays, we quite often find the newspaper headlines or the scrolling breaking news of the TV news channels that the oil companies are going to increase the fuel prices. This rising trends in the prices of petrol and diesel over the years have made the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) to brand the cars as fuel efficient on the analogy of other starred products like air conditioners and refrigerators to save on the costs of the fuel. This step will encourage the car manufacturers to bring out more models of fuel efficient cars since the demand for the fuel efficient cars will increase taking into account the rising prices of petrol and diesel. India certainly needs more fuel efficient cars to save on the costs of imports of oil which is unbalancing our foreign trade very badly.

Present situation of fuel efficient cars in India.

• According to some preliminary estimates, only about 9% to 16% models of cars in India can be considered as fuel efficient as per the standards prescribed by Bureau of Energy Efficiency. The sales of cars in India over the number of years have risen three times without any considerable increase in the number fuel efficient cars. If this trend is not checked up, India will have about 5.5 million cars added every year and the number might soon reach over the next few years to 45 million cars. It will be no wonder then that the consumption of fuel might exceed 25 million tonnes. So this will prove to be very dismal situation for India to provide for the supply of the fuel unless some effective measures are taken for using alternative methods of energising the car engines or produce very fuel efficient cars in future.

Standards prescribed by Bureau of Energy Efficiency and the present scenario.

Based on the consumption of fuel per 100 kms of run, the cars are to be branded as fuel efficient on the following lines by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE):

Five categories of fuel efficient cars:

5-star cars – Cars with consumption of up to 7 litres of fuel per 100 kms.

4-star cars – Cars that consume between 7 litres and 9 litres of fuel per 100 kms.

3-star cars – Cars that consume between 9 litres and 11 litres of fuel per 100 kms.

2-star cars – Cars with consumption of 12 litres of fuel per 100 kms.

1-star cars – Cars consuming more than 12 litres of fuel per 100 kms

Number of car models in India and their fuel efficiency.

• There are about 330 car models in India and the number is increasing every year. According to the present estimates, the number of fuel efficient cars in India is very less. There are about 72 models of cars which fall in the 1-star category, 69 car models are in the 2-star category, 105 car models belong to the 3-star category, 52 car models are in the 4-star category and only 32 car models fall under the 5-star category. These statistics show that there is a dire need of manufacturing car models that should be added to the category of 4-star and 5-star categories.
• The statistics worked out according to the sales of different starred categories reveal that the 1-star and the 5-star car models was the lowest i.e. between 62 and 72 vehicles 1000 of vehicles sold. The highest car models sold belonged to the 4-star category i.e. about 625 vehicles per 1000 of sold vehicles. The sale of 2-star models was 535 per 1000 vehicles sold and that of 3-star models, the figure of cars sold was about 585 vehicles out of 1000 vehicles put for sale.

Future prospects and strategy with respect to fuel efficient cars in India.

• Taking into consideration the speed at which the new cars are entering the market, which might increase the sale three times of the volume at present and its impact on petroleum imports and its consumption in country, both the government and the car manufacturers have to take immediate steps to avoid the critical situation which this phenomenal increase in sales of car might result in. As such, without mincing any words, the government should work out a strategy and the car manufacturers must continuously go on producing cars which should decrease the average fuel costs of the cars to the consumer. The strategy should be such that the consumers are lured to buy more and more fuel efficient cars. The faster the manufacturers of cars think and work in this direction, the better it will be for the future of automobile industry of India and for improving the health of the Indian economy.

Some of fuel efficient cars in the Indian market at present.

The following is the list of the fuel efficient cars in India that are petrol models:

Bajaj RE60 – 35 kmpl. (The car is recently announced by Bajaj but is still to come on road.)

Tata Nano – 23.7 kmpl.

Hyundai i10 – 20.3 kmpl.

Maruti Alto – 20.2 kmpl.

Maruti Suzuki A-Star – 19 kmpl.

Hyundai i20 – 20 kmpl.

Chevrolet Beat - 18.6 kmpl.

The following is the list of the fuel efficient cars in India that are diesel models:

Tata Indigo CS – 23.6 kmpl.

Tata Indica Vista – 22.3 kmpl.

Volkswagen Polo – 22.1 kmpl.

Fiat 500 – 22 kmpl.

Hyundai i20 – 21.9 kmpl.

Maruti Suzuki Swift – 21.7 kmpl.