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How green is the automobile industry?

ENVIRONMENTAL RATING OFPASSENGER CARS AND MULTI-UTILITY VEHICLES

Model Ranking

TOP TEN

Daewoo Matiz 1

Maruti 800 Euro II 2

Hyundai Santro 3

Mercedes-Benz E240 4

Maruti Zen Euro II 5

Hyundai Accent 6

Honda 1.5 VTEC 7

Fiat Siena 8

Honda 1.3 EXi 9

Fiat Uno 10

BOTTOM FIVE

Mitsubishi Lancer Diesel 27

Telco 207 (Diesel) Euro II 28

Toyota Qualis Euro I 29

Ambassador Diesel 30

Mahindra Armada Grand 31

The automobile industry is growing enormously - both in pollution and size. The Green Rating Project (GRP), an environmental rating of the Indian automobile industry by the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), found that the industry today consists only of the not-so-good, the bad and the ugly manufacturers.

GRP was a great challenge in view of the technologies, processes and vehicles as well as the human side such as companies and managers. The exhaustive environmental audit covered the lifecycle impact of industrial production, use of vehicles as well as the scrapping of vehicles.

GRP had 90 percent participation by industry, not rating the ones who didn’t partiticipate thereby raising doubts on the ‘independence’ of this report.

Interestingly, The Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) which does not usually share its database of pollution test results with any one - not even the government - made its entire data available to the CSE. This was a real coup.

In the overall rating, the industry and its firms fare badly. The best nine companies leading the ranks table get just 34-44 percent marks, with none coming close to the top ‘five leaf ' rating.

The findings include:

Engine designs and technology are a decade old and responsible for emissions, not poor fuel quality.
Petrol vehicles today fare better than diesel, CNG better than petrol.
Joint ventures are no better than Indian companies.
Companies just meet the emission norms. None substantially go beyond the norms (there is one exception), nor are there any government incentives for improvement.

In its view the major reasons for poor air quality are:

Poor mass transport infrastructure
Shift from railways to roads and to personal vehicles
Poor transport planning
Poor vehicle technology
Reliance on conventional fuel
Lack of government support for alternatives.

Yet the first three bulleted points do not find a place in its recommendations. And the last three seem influenced by CSE’s own beliefs, biases and prejudices (notably against diesel). These seem to have unfortunately taken precedence over the information and findings it has presented.

Both the CSE and GRP have missed the bus in fulfilling their objectives in many areas. GRP considered it important to “diagnose the reasons for the illness and recommend possible solutions,” instead of mere pronouncements on the disease. But it has just done the reverse!

For example, GRP has missed the excellent correlation between its ranking and increased engine cc - higher the cc the lower the rank. It says “the best diesel car, which is the Mercedes-Benz E220 CDI ranks as low as 15,” but leaves out the fact that the petrol-engined Mercedes E240 gets fourth rank despite possessing a 2400cc engine.

Similarly it does not notice that the Hyundai Accent, Honda City and even the E220 perform better than the cc-rank trend line. On the other hand, second rank holder Maruti 800 Euro II also has a Maruti 800 Euro I that ranked 19th!

Regulatory emission standards have brought all vehicles within the permissible emission levels. GRP has made an excellent recommendation that incentives be given so that more companies and vehicles may do better than the norms like Honda City. But it has missed the evident point that if norms are fixed at Euro IV levels for December 2002, all the manufacturers will have to comply.

GRP thinks that if consumers insist on the cleanest possible cars, auto companies will comply for fear of losing the markets. It forgets that ‘greener’ cars cost more. Consumers would certainly pay a higher price for a more fuel efficient vehicle, but would not buy a greener vehicle if it is more expensive.

GRP is also silent about reformulated fuels. During the long transition to alternate fuels and engines, emissions would substantially come down if reformulated fuels are used.

Since CSE aims at promoting transparent public debate on its findings, it can add to the transparency if it would also disclose the terms of reference of the UNDP and MOE support for the GRP.

S G Shah

Source

December 2001

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