Abstract:

While traditional wisdom would count the 80% share of two and three-wheelers in India’s vehicle fleet as a hurdle in curbing vehicular energy and environmental burdens but thought otherwise, it presents an opportunity as large as the massive consumer base which is yet to be tapped with simple and open information for the bottom-up shift to cleaner and efficient vehicles. And this is the central thought of Green Vehicle Rating (GVR) - to constructively raise awareness of consumers on vehicle emissions and impacts of fuel efficiency with clear public information, resulting from credible methods and analyses.

GVR serves as an information tool that identifies vehicle models with high to low environmental performance in the 2 and 3-wheelers segments. It enables consumers to see the hidden costs of energy-related pollution impacts from vehicular fuel combustion to inform their purchase decisions. In its current phase, GVR evaluates the tailpipe emissions from a pilot size sample of twenty-two new vehicle models, including top sellers: twenty 2-wheelers, two 3-wheelers. The main outcomes of GVR cover two dimensions:

1. Ranking for 2 and 3-wheelers so that consumers can compare between the negative contributions of highest and least polluting models, developed by rating against the environmental and health impacts of a reference vehicle;
2. Expanding the current understanding of consumers beyond the costs of owning a vehicle, termed as ‘Total Cost of Ownership’ (TCO), to get them to value and account for social costs generated from greenhouse gases and air pollutants in monetary terms (INR per Km).

The GVR outcomes, the final rating and per vehicle cost analysis, are listed in this report and are also displayed for public knowledge on the project web pages within the AEEE website.