Background Of BS-VI

BS-VI is an emission standard and norm implemented by the government body Central Pollution Control Board under the Ministry Of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. BS stands for Bharat Stage Emission standards. The standards are based on European pollution regulations and were first introduced in India in the year 2000. In recent years urban as well as rural areas have witnessed alarmingly high rising levels of air pollution. One of the main sources of these rising pollution levels is the commercial and private vehicles that run daily on the roads. The central government thus decided to replace BS 4 vehicles with BS 6 vehicles.

Brief History of Bharat Emission Norms

In 2016, the government decided to skip BS-V norms and decided to implement BS 6 norms for all vehicles starting from 2020. Supreme Court of India, in a judgement, ordered to stop the sale of BS 4 vehicles and bikes from 1st April 2020 onwards. This was a testing time for the entire Indian automobile industry as they had to comply with the Supreme Courts’ orders, and they tried to clear their old stock of BS 4 vehicles by selling them before 31st March 2020.

Specifications of BS 4 vehicles complying with BS 4 Pollution Norms

One of the major norms that BS4 vehicles had to comply with was limiting the exhaust sulphur content to only 50 parts per million sulphur content, whereas earlier, around 350 million parts sulphur exhaust content was allowed in the BS 3 norms. Moreover, BS 4 vehicles had to significantly lower the exhaust emissions of particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and emission of other harmful pollutants. Another major compilation for the BS 4 vehicles was the “automatic headlamp on” feature. Further, we will see the difference between BS4 vs BS6 and what is BS 6.

What is BS6?

Let’s get the answer to the question, “what is BS6?” BS 6 is the sixth emission norm introduced by the government in an effort to reduce air pollution across the country. Initially, when BS 4 vehicles were made mandatory, the process used to implement it was slow and steady. But implementation of BS 6 was made in such a hasty way that BS 5 was skipped altogether. BS 6 norms focus mostly on increasing the content of cleaner and better air across the country. In fact, BS 6 norms are stricter than the BS 4 norms and require a specialised set of hardware implementation in the engines. This special requirement makes BS 6 vehicles a bit costlier than BS 4 vehicles.

BS 4 V/S BS 6

When we compare BS4 vs BS6, the main difference that we can find is that in BS 6 norms, a petrol engine is required to emit 25% lesser hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide as compared to BS 4 vehicles. While speaking about BS 6 diesel engines, they need a reduction of around 43% in hydrocarbon plus nitrogen oxide emissions and a reduction of 68% in their NOx emission levels as compared to BS 4 vehicles. Both BS 4 and BS 6 engines need a reduction of a whopping 82% in particulate matter emissions.

The below table will help us understand BS4 vs BS6 in a better way:

From the above table, we can say that norms implemented in the BS 6 engines and vehicles for controlling air pollutants are stricter when compared to BS 4 vehicles.

Conclusion

To reduce air pollution and improve air quality, the implementation of BS-VI norms was a necessary step. Recent statistics and research show that the implementation of BS-VI has reduced air pollution to a certain level. Further statistics reveal that BS-VI has been more successful than its former iterations that were available in BS 4 vehicles. When we analyse BS4 vs BS6, certainly BS 6 stands out and succeeds. In order to completely comply with the BS 6 norms, using BS 6 type fuel is also mandatory.