The Bureau Of Energy Efficiency is an agency of the Government of India, created in 2002 and its objective is to ensure conservation and efficient use of energy. One great step that the agency took was ‘Star Labelling’. Under this all the branded electronic products bear ‘star rating’ labels which clearly tells how efficient that product is. The implementation of ‘Star Labeling’ is very helpful to buyers as now they can differentiate between efficient and inefficient products.
Gladly the policy has been quite effective and now the agency is extending its policy to another important segment, this is Cars. In fact the proposals of implementing the BEE star ratings are going around the BEE for about 3 years now, finally there is a deadline and clear guideline for car makers to implement this norm. You heard it right, Bureau Of Energy Efficiency will soon extend its policy to cars as well and from April 01, 2013 all the cars will come with a star rating label. The label will clearly mention how efficient your car is.
This way it will become mandatory for carmakers to be more concerned about the nature and therefore make more efficient products. Although the government has take the first step towards standardization of regulatory norms, we could see manufacturers stepping forwards and voluntarily labeling their cars within the next 2-3 months.
Ajay Mathur, director-general, BEE, said,
“There will be a well-defined methodology for testing and common benchmarking. The thinking is that we will go for voluntary labeling immediately and mandatory labeling from next year,”
The cars will be rated on a scale of 5, where 5 is for most fuel efficient and 1 for least fuel efficient. To classify cars and rate them correctly, 100 kms will be covered in each car and then the score will be given. The classification will be as follows:
- 5 Stars: A car consuming up to 7 litres of fuel per 100 kilometers
- 4 Stars: A car consuming 7 to 9 litres of fuel per 100 kilometers
- 3 Stars: A car consuming 9 to 11 litres of fuel per 100 kilometers
- 2 Stars: A car consuming 11 to 12 litres of fuel per 100 kilometers
- 1 Star: A car consuming more than 12 litres of fuel per 100 kilometers
One thing which is still not clear is whether BEE will consider ARAI certified mileage figures or they will test the cars on test parameters set by them. Out of altogether 330 models in India, 32 fall in the 5 Star category while 52 in the 4 Star category.
The story doesn’t end at Star Labeling, BEE plans to implement another regulation where the average star rating of all the cars from a manufacturer (Corporate Average or Fleet Average) will have to be maintained below specified levels. This will help reduce the fuel consumption in a longer run and will encourage the car makers to make more fuel efficient cars.
