India has been following the European (Euro) emission norm, through with a lag of 7 years. BS4 norms are applicable in the most of cities in which required grade of fuel is available and rest part of the country still conforms to BS3 standard.
On 29 March 2017, the Supreme Court banned the sale and registration of vehicles which were not compliant with BS4 norms.
Some facts about BS3 & BS4
- Although Indian automobile manufacturer had 8,24,275 BS3 vehicle inventories which market value had Rs.12,000 crore. Out of these 96,724 was a commercial vehicle, 6,71,308 were 2 Wheelers, 40,048 were 3 wheelers and 16,198 were passenger cars.
- There was a need to invest Rs. 40,000 crore for upgrading BS3 standard fuel to BS4 standard fuel.
- Automobile manufacturer invested an additional Rs. 30,000 crore in two-component diesel particulate filter and selective catalytic reduction module.
- BS4 petrol and diesel have only 50ppm of sulfur as compared to 150ppm for petrol and 350ppm for diesel under BS43 standards.