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Car makers support one country one fuel policy

If the government adopts the suggestions by the car makers, there will soon be one quality of fuel available across the country. However, chances of the same are meek as this would invite an addition Rs 50,000 crore investment by the government. If this is applied, car makers such as Tata India, Maruti India, Hyundai India and others will not have to maintain BS III and BS IV production lines separately and will then have to keep one production line only. Notably, the government has currently dual norm policy applicable in India and only 13 cities have the BS IV norms applicable while most of the cities have BS III norms in place.

By applying single fuel policy, it will be easier for the car makers as they will then be producing cars as per the latest norms and will not have to handle different production lines. However, upgrading the fuel rest of the cities from BS III to BS IV will attract a huge sum that is not feasible for the government at the moment and it will done in a phased manner as proposed in the fuel policy. Meanwhile, the car makers have also expressed that the ‘one country one fuel’ policy will also help improve the environment by reducing harmful gases released by vehicles running on BS II and BS III vehicles.

Meanwhile, the one country one fuel policy will be good for big bulls of the car industry but will wipe out some cars such as Premier Rio diesel that is currently only available in BSIV petrol version. However, Premier is doing its best to upgrade it with the introduction of Fiat sourced multijet engine in it. The new 1.3 L multijet engine will not only help the car attain its presence in major cities, it will also help build trust for the car that is currently marred by some technical and other issues.