Buyers can choose car on fuel effciency from April

Cos will have to affix a label mentioning fuel economy

 If you want to buy less fuel guzzling car, it will be easy to explore such vehicles soon. Carmakers from April 1, may have to affix a label mentioning the fuel economy star rating on their product on the line of Energy Star Rating system in home appliances.

Also, the government plans to make it mandatory for manufacturers and importers of cars to comply with average fuel consumption standards from April 1, 2017, in addition to display of fuel economy star rating (FESR).

“Every manufacturer or importer of a vehicle... manufactured or imported on or after April 1, 2016, shall affix on the vehicle a FESR label,” a draft notification from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has said.

Also it mentions that “Every manufacturer of importer of motor vehicles at least four wheelers ... other than quadricycles used for carrying passengers or their luggage comprising not more than nine seats including drivers seat shall on and from April 1, 2017 comply with energy consumption standards ...under the provisions of Energy Conservation Act.”

The Ministry also plans to amend the rules of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, and has sought objections or suggestions to it. Once the draft rules are notified, every dealer will have to prominently display the star rating, it said.

Parameters for rating

The government plans to give one to five star ratings based on fuel economy levels based on parameters like consumption of fuel whether it is powered with more tan one fuel such as petrol, diesel, LPG or compressed natural gas (CNG). 

The government has worked out a formula for calculating the mileage according to the quantity of fuel consumed by a car over a distance of 100 kilometres and it is also linked to the vehicles weight.

International Centre for Automotive Technology, Manesar, Haryana shall authorise usage of labels on the request by manufacturer for each vehicle model and its variant and ‘charge fee for each label’, as per draft notification signed by Joint Secretary, Road Transport and Highways, Abhay Damle.

Newnorms

The government plans to make it mandatory for manufacturers and importers of cars to comply with average fuel consumption standards from April 1, 2017

 The Transport Ministry also plans to amend the rules of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, and has sought objections or suggestions to it

The International Centre for Automotive Technology, Manesar, Haryana, shall authorise usage of labels