As India prepared to enforce stricter emissions control norms in 2022, Hyundai wrote to the government requesting extending the implementation of the rules by another financial year. However, at least two ministries rejected the automaker’s plea, and went ahead with the initial timeline, records inspected as part of a Right to Information (RTI) application by The Indian Express showed.
Hyundai was among eight automakers including Mahindra, Kia, and Honda, which were unable to meet the country’s second iteration of the Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) norms for 2022-23, The Indian Express had reported last month. The CAFE 2, which are the key emissions norms in India currently, went into effect in April 2022.
As per an inspection of official records at the Ministry of Power following the RTI application, Hyundai sent two letters to the ministry requesting deferment of CAFE 2 norms implementation date by one financial year (from April 2022 to April 2023). The letters were sent on January 19 and March 29, 2022. But in June 2022, the ministries of road transport and power decided against deferment, or extension of the norms’ applicability.
A Hyundai Motor India Limited spokesperson, however, denied that the company had sought an extension of the norms by a year. “Your query that Hyundai had requested the government to delay by a year the implementation of the CAFE 2 norms from April 1, 2022 to April 1, 2023, is incorrect,” the carmaker’s spokesperson said. “The company remains committed to ensuring the highest standards of compliance and transparency.”
For 2022-23, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, under the Union Ministry of Power, required car companies of all units sold during the year to achieve the CAFE 2 norms. This meant a fuel consumption of not more than 4.78 litres per 100 km and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of not more than 113 grams per km (since it has a direct correlation with the amount of fuel consumed).
Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency norms, which were first introduced in 2017-18, are aimed at improving the fuel efficiency of vehicles, leading to reduced fossil fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. They apply to the average fuel consumption of all the vehicles sold by an automaker in a given financial year.
In 2022-23, models and variants of 18 automobile manufacturers were tested at accredited laboratories by simulating actual driving conditions.
In November, The Indian Express reported that the centre found that eight carmakers — Hyundai, Kia, Mahindra, Honda, Renault, Nissan, Skoda and Force Motor — had higher than mandated fleet emission levels in the financial year 2022-23, which could mean penalties of around Rs 7,300 crore.
The penalty on Hyundai is the highest, totalling over Rs 2,800 crore, followed by Mahindra (nearly Rs 1,800 crore) and Kia (over Rs 1,300 crore). These penalty figures are under contention, with companies protesting the way they were calculated for the entire financial year.
In response to the report, Mahindra in an exchange filing said no penalty for its alleged violation of India’s emission norms in 2022-23 was being levied on the company or considered to the “best of (its) knowledge”. Hyundai said, it had “not received any formal or informal information or intimation regarding any penalty and has not heard of, formally or informally, the quantum mentioned”.
Due to the contention in the penalty figures, the government has had to delay the release of the Annual Fuel Consumption Compliance Report for 2022-23. The last available report is from 2021-22 (a year before CAFE 2 norms kicked in), when all 19 carmakers had complied with emission norms. It is learnt that the compliance report for the following year — 2023-24 — is also ready, but has not been made public since the report for the previous year is hanging fire.
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