The concept of emission warranty in India is still not well understood. To most, it means nothing more than the normal short-term performance warranty programme. It, therefore, came as a surprise in January this year when the Indian two-wheeler industry came forward to announce that it was prepared to accept emission warranty only for two-stroke two-wheelers with catalytic converters (CCs). This hurried announcement came through to stave off the proposed ban on two-stroke two-wheelers in the capital. Offering emission warranty instead was seen as an option to escape the ban.

The Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) for the National Capital Territory has recommended to the Supreme Court that keeping in view the doubts about the durability of CCs for two-stroke two-wheelers these should be banned in Delhi. Alarmed by these recommendations the two-wheeler industry under the aegis of Society for Indian Automobile Manufactures (SIAM) organised a round table meeting on December 10, 1999. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) stated that such vehicles should come along with an emission warranty so that manufacturers take full responsibility for emissions from two-wheelers fitted with CCs. Soon after, on the occasion of the Auto Expo 2000, SIAM president Venu Srinivasan announced the acceptance of an emission warranty for two-stroke two-wheelers with CCs.

Two-wheelers are under attack because these are going to rely heavily on CCs for meeting the India 2000 norms. Since the proven durability of CCs fitted on two-wheelers CCs is lower than that of cars, the CC route does not seem very viable. Indian manufacturers are claiming that it is possible to provide CCs with life of 30,000 km for two-wheelers as opposed to 80,000 km in the case of cars. But there is no clear answer as to how the high sulphur level in petrol will affect the durability of these CCs in addition to other problems specific to two-stroke exhaust like high temperature. Given the annual estimated utilisation of 4,500 km per annum for two-wheelers, the CCs will have to be replaced in a little over six years. This clearly passes the onus to the consumer and also in absence of any regulations on deterioration level for CCs for scooters and tests to check compliance, there is no way one can find out the functional efficiency of these gadgets once on the road.

Given these uncertainties, it is important to ensure that if two-stroke engines come with CCs, the manufacturers must be asked to provide an emission warranty so that they take the responsibility of replacing CCs as and when needed according to the specified life or deterioration factor mandated by the government.

Even the preferred four-stroke scooters should be fitted with CCs to take care of particularly benzene and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions. The comparative emission levels of two and four-stroke two wheelers provided by SIAM to the EPCA shows that four-stroke two-wheelers will emit more CO compared to two-stroke two-wheelers. Keeping in view the high level of CO levels in the capital, it is important to ensure that there is no escalation in its emission on account of this move. Hence, even four-stroke two-wheelers should be fitted with CCs.

CCs have a lifetime which is shorter than that of a vehicle and their performance can deteriorate very fast if the fuel quality is poor. There is also no guarantee that CCs on cars will work for a long time because of high sulphur content in Indian petrol. And, in any case, diesel cars have no CCs. This essentially means that vehicles malfunctioning on account of poor fuel quality or inherent engine problems can lead to harassment of customers that would be truly unfair.