Q1. With reference to India’s Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) norms, consider the following statements:
- CAFE norms assess the average fuel-efficiency performance of a manufacturer's fleet rather than prescribing an identical fuel-efficiency requirement for every individual passenger vehicle.
- Battery electric vehicles can receive a higher weighting in the fleet-average calculation than conventional internal-combustion vehicles.
- CAFE norms and Bharat Stage (BS) emission standards primarily address the same set of pollutants and operate through an identical regulatory mechanism.
- Under CAFE-III, fuel-efficiency performance is expressed using petrol-equivalent fuel consumption, allowing different fuel types to be compared within a common framework.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 1, 2 and 4 only
(c) 2, 3 and 4 only
(d) 1, 3 and 4 only
Answer: (b)
Explanation:
- Statement 1 is Correct: CAFE regulates the fleet-average fuel-efficiency/CO₂ performance of a manufacturer.
- Statement 2 is Correct: Under CAFE-III, a battery EV is counted as three vehicles for the fleet-efficiency calculation, providing a strong incentive for electrification.
- Statement 3 is Incorrect: CAFE and BS norms are not interchangeable. CAFE focuses primarily on fleet-average fuel consumption/CO₂ performance, whereas BS standards regulate tailpipe pollutants such as NOx, PM, CO and hydrocarbons.
- Statement 4 is Correct: Different fuels are converted into petrol-equivalent values using notified conversion factors, enabling fleet-level comparison.
