Running on empty
The auto industry focuses on pollution mitigating devices instead of improvising and improving on the basics of the engine. That is the general impression. But, the emission control equipment companies instal, even on the latest models, is not the best available. It barely passes the tests and the scrutiny of the unsuspecting consumer. It couldn't fool the grp rating process though. They looked deeper into the issue and found the industry's reluctance to provide technological advantage prevalent here too.
Take the case of the catalytic converter. It is now commonly used in petrol cars, two-stroke two-wheelers as well as some diesel cars in India. But the catalytic converters put to use today in India were designed a decade back in the West. They have been greatly improved upon since then, but the cars that swish around on Indian roads continue to be the archaic and obsolete machines of yesteryear.
All petrol passenger cars are fitted with three-way catalytic converter. Two-stroke two-wheelers and diesel passenger cars are fitted with oxidation catalysts. Catalytic converters are absent in other automobile segments like diesel-fuelled mass transport vehicles and four-stroke two-wheelers.
But the state of the art early light-off catalysts are yet to hit the Indian shores. And of course, there is no indigenous technology to supplement in their absence. The early light-off catalytic converters work better under Indian traffic conditions which demands constant braking and speeding.
In the petrol passenger car segment, the majority of the vehicles use catalytic converters that do not suit the engine design. All the spark ignition (petrol-based) cars have single hego sensors, which can only supply air-fuel ratio of two fixed values; one rich and one lean. It cannot change the air-fuel ratio based on the driving condition, thus driving down fuel efficiency and increasing pollution.
There are numerous other observations with which grp's analysis of the auto sector has removed the veil of confusion. It has reiterated the simple fact staring the industry in its face: shape up or be ready to be shipped out by an increasingly vigilant society.
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