Mileage fuel efficiency labels on cars

New Delhi: After more than four years of wrangling, the government has cleared fuel mileage standards and labelling for new cars.
The norms, to be implemented soon, will force automobile manufacturers to put government certified fuel efficiency labels on each car they sell and improve efficiency of the cars they sell every year.
While labels will become mandatory soon, standards will kick in by 2015, giving manufacturers time to improve the technology under the bonnet to meet standards.
The labels will certify the fuel efficiency of the car model under standard conditions and where it stands in comparison to other cars in the same category. At the moment, the top 10 manufacturers with combined sales of over 96% of the market have an average fuel efficiency of 16.42 km per litre.
By 2015, this will be improved to 18.15 km per litre and by 2020, this will have to be ratcheted up to 20.79 km per litre on average. Keeping consumer interest in mind, the government has also kept the standards low enough to ensure any extra cost paid for the improved technology can be recouped from better mileage over 2-3 years even after the tougher norms kick in by 2020.
After 2015, manufacturers will not be allowed to sell models that fall below government’s ‘one star’ rating, forcing companies to produce better cars. The way standards are defined the companies would have to ensure they sell enough efficient cars to meet the corporate fleet average standard set by the government for 2015 and then for 2020.