Vehicle Emission standards

Vehicle Emission standards

Emission standards are legal regulations that control the amount of air pollutants released into the atmosphere. These standards set quantitative limits on the allowable emissions of specific pollutants from various sources within defined timeframes. Their primary goals are to meet air quality objectives and safeguard human health. Different regions and countries implement varying standards for vehicle emissions.

There are largely three main sets of standards: United States, Japanese, and European, with various markets mostly using these as their base. Sweden, Switzerland, and Australia had separate emissions standards for many years but have since adopted the European standards. India, China, and other newer markets have also begun enforcing vehicle emissions standards (derived from the European requirements) in the twenty-first century, as growing vehicle fleets have given rise to severe air quality problems there, too.

Vehicle emission standards in India are derived from European Euro Emission standards which in India are known as Bharat stage (BS) Emission Standards.

Overview of the emission norms in India

• 1991 – Idle CO limits for petrol vehicles and free acceleration smoke for diesel vehicles, mass emission norms for petrol vehicles.
• 1992 – Mass emission norms for diesel vehicles.
• 1996 – Revision of mass emission norms for petrol and diesel vehicles, mandatory fitment of catalytic converter for cars in metros on unleaded petrol.
• 1998 – Cold start norms introduced.
• 2000 – India 2000 (equivalent to Euro I) norms, modified IDC (Indian driving cycle), Bharat Stage II norms for Delhi.
• 2001 – Bharat Stage II (equivalent to Euro II) norms for all metros, emission norms for CNG and LPG vehicles.
• 2003 – Bharat Stage II (equivalent to Euro II) norms for 13 major cities.
• 2005 – From 1 April, Bharat Stage IV equivalent to Euro IV norms for 13 major cities.
• 2010 – Bharat Stage IV emission norms for 2-wheelers, 3-wheelers and 4-wheelers for the entire country, whereas Bharat Stage IV (equivalent to Euro IV) for 13 major cities for only 4-wheelers. Bharat Stage IV also has norms on OBD (similar to Euro III but diluted).
• 2017 – Bharat Stage IV norms for all vehicles.
• 2018 - Bharat Stage VI fuel norms from 1 April 2018 in Delhi instead of 2020.
• 2020 – Bharat Stage VI fuel norms from 1 April 2020 nationwide switching India to world's cleanest diesel and petrol.
• 2023 - Bharat Stage VI Second Phase Fuel norms from 1 April 2023 have only Petrol also called RDE norms with e20 fuels

Reference :- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharat_stage_emission_standards